Medicine and Art - Week 4

Figure One: Bodyworlds

This week we focused on how the medicine, art and the body have all become related. For thousands of years people have been obsessed with the body, not only in terms of how it operates but also admiring it for its pure beauty. They have been able to examine the body through autopsy, "autopsy is the examination of the dead body with the idea of trying to find the cause of death in order to help befit the living" (1). It has not been until recently that the two worlds of studying the body for science and looking at the body as art have come together.

Autopsies have been around for 100s of years although "before 1500 C.E. the Catholic Church condemned the practice of autopsies" (2), the reason for this is that it was believed that god made the human body perfectly and that he was the only person that should be allowed to look inside of it. This all began to change in the 1500s when people began to be curious as to how we

Figure Two: Autopsy from the 1500s

could study the dead in order to help the living. This is when autopsies began to be widely used through out all of Europe. "In the early days over 50% of dead bodies were autopsied compared to the 5% that are autopsied today" (3) This shows us that looking at why he people died and taking a look into their bodies was a bit of a fad. While people don't perform autopsies as often today there is still a lot of curiosity about the body. When the bodies were dissected people began to discover how truly wonderfully the body is put together, the curiosity about how the body worked stayed.

Figure Three: The Body 

The body has always been looked to as art. A way we have been able to study the body while also looking to it as art is through Body Worlds which is an exhibit with real human bodies are put on display. The bodies have their skin removed in order for the viewer to be able to see what the bodies insides look like. "A scientific marvel and artistic wonder, the human body is an epic of form and function" (4) this quote embodies what Body Worlds is all about, it is a way for us (the everyday person) to be able to study the body and not get  grossed out because it is presented in an artistic way.

Throughout history the reasons why we want to look at the body have not changed. We look at it to help us learn more while looking at it for its beauty as well. The way that we examine the body is what has changed. Instead of just dissecting it we now have developed ways that we can both study the body and admire its beauty at the same time.


Bibliography

Pictures
Figure One:15 Feb. 2011. Web. 21 Apr. 2015. <http://bukeayrastiff.weebly.com/uploads/1/7/9/8/17983465/179575428_orig.jpg?342>.
Figure Two: "Examining the Dead to Understand the Living." Innovations. 29 Apr. 2011. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
Figure Three: Hopkinslupus. 1 Oct. 2006. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. <http://www.hopkinslupus.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/How-Lupus-Affects-The-Body-300x299.jpg>.

Online Resources 
1.) Nnoil, Martin. "Clinical Autopsy and Its Benefits." Pmjumu. 1 Nov. 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2015
2.) Cowles, Isabel. "Examining the Dead to Understand the Living." Innovations. 29 Apr. 2011. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
3.)"History of Medicine." Healio. 10 Mar. 2008. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.
4.)"Prelude." Body Worlds. 7 Aug. 2010. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.

My visit to the Hammer Museum

My awesome tour guide and I

Driving to different places around LA I usually always take Wilshire every time I take it a certain building always catches my eye. It has the word Hammer written across it with big silver letters. In my time here at UCLA I have constantly heard of the Hammer Museum but nothing more then that. I knew it was associated with UCLA but it was a bit of a unicorn in the sense that I had no idea where it was but I knew it was close and some people had been to it. It wasn't until this class that I put two and two together and figured out that the building on Wilshire that had grabbed my attention so many times was actually the Hammer Museum!

Having some fun with the art

Upon entering the museum something caught my eye, it was a series of chairs in the courtyard. These chairs were unlike any other that I have seen before, you could sit in them and spin around at crazy angles. I probably spent 10 mins there having more fun then I thought I would have at a museum. While I'm on the subject of having fun at the museum it was to my amazement that on the third floor they had two ping pong tables. I played a couple games while on my way from one of the the displays to the other.

My favorite display at the Hammer has to with something we learned about it our class, Math and its relation to Art. The exhibit was a series of different renditions of what buildings around the world would and do look like. These were no ordinary buildings but rather some of the most modern, beautiful and artistic buildings I have ever seen. The way that this ties in with our class is that if you had told me that scale models of buildings could have ben considered art I would have laughed and said no way. Boy was I wrong. They were beautiful and I considered them art right from the get go. It was definitely cool to see how the artist took math to help design the building and thus it becoming art.

Tree art 

All of the other displays were really cool too. One of the highlights can be seen in the picture to the left. They are trees that are made up of tiny squares with numbers inside of them. When you looked at them from far away they looked like colorful trees and it wasn't until you got up close that you could see the numbers that make up the tree. Another cool exhibit was a giant piece of paper that had a pencil drawing on it. What was interesting to me was that it was unfinished. I don't know if the artist did this on purpose or if he was trying to send a message to the viewer. This same exhibit also surprised me because you could walk right up to it, there was nothing separating you from touching the art.

My time at the Hammer Museum was a lot of fun. I went in there no knowing what to expect but I had the expectation that it wouldn't be very much fun. I was beyond wrong. The chairs and ping pong tables kept me entertained as did the art. I really enjoyed seeing what we are learning about in a tangible way. It's one thing to talk about the relation of Art and Math but to see it in person really helped me understand what we had learned. I am counting down the days unit I go to my next event for this class!

Robots and Art - Week 3

Figure 1: Robot in the Ford Factory 

The focus for this week was robotics and art. After reading through and watching the material I decided to focus on robotics in Japan verses the United States. The reason why I did this is because of Professor Machiko Kusahara's lecture on robotics in Japan, it brought out ideas that I had never thought about before. When I've heard about robots its only been in relation to the robots that build things in factories.

"Factories first opened their doors to modern industrial robots in 1961" (1). Before this time factories used manual labor to complete the tasks that they had, whether that was building cars or putting together washing machines humans were used. The good thing about having real people work is that you are providing people with jobs and there is a certain amount of pride that goes into their work. The downside is that they make mistakes, they work at different paces and you have to keep paying them. These problems were solved with robots, "with no need to take breaks . . . a manufacturing robot can increase productivity dramatically" (2), people were out of jobs but the rate of manufacturing went up.

Figure 2: Japanese Robot

The idea of what Japanese robots look like and do varies greatly from the American idea. In Japan robots take on a more life like appearance and purpose. "The Henn-na hotel in Japan will become the first robot staffed hotel in the world" (3), by looking at this quote we can see what Japan wants for their robots, they want them to be able to replace their human workers without having the people they are interacting with think that they are having a conversation with a robot.

While these two groups of robots vary greatly they do reveal something about the two countries that they come from. Industrialization drives everything. Industrialization is "the process of converting to a socioeconomic order in which industry is dominant" (4), industrialization has made the days of robots being created for fun now they are made for a single purpose, to help industry.

Figure 3: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

A movie which I have seen this happen is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I never thought that this movie would help me make a point but here I am. In the movie Charlie's dad works hard at a toothpaste factory to provide for his family. This all ends when robots are brought in to do the job better. When this happens he looses his job and in turn a way to support his family. While this is just a movie it was a way for me to really visualize what is going on with robots and industrialization.



Works Cited
Photographs 
Figure One: "Ford Automotive Robot." 1 Jan. 2013. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/blogs/Ford-Robotics-2.jpg>.
Figure Two: 24 Sept. 2010. Web. <http://tx.english-ch.com/teacher/jane/jp robot.jpg>.
Figure Three: 1 Apr. 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://3to1z93m5aspz1tlz1zcsjta2m.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/koltv8r/wp-content/uploads/sites/273/2014/06/Robots.png>.

Online Resources 
1.) "How Have Robots Changed Manufacturing?" How It Works. 14 May 2012. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
2.) "What Are the Advantages of an Industrial Manufacturing Robot?" Robots. 2 Feb. 2011. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.
3.) "Check into Japan's Creepy Robot Hotel." The Daily Beast. 2 May 2014. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
4.) "Industrialization." Britannica. 10 July 2007. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.

Math and Art - Week 2

When it comes to math and how it influenced science and art it becomes very hard to compare math with art. Math has rules you must follow in order to get to your ultimate goal of solving the problem. This is not the case for art. Art is a free flowing expression of your mind, with no rules to follow. You can do whatever you want. Leonardo da Vinci once said “art lives from constraints “ (1), this means that art thrives on people putting restrictions on it, art goes past those limitations. But when you look at math and art in a deeper way you can see that there is a relation between the two. April according to the American Mathematical Society happens to be Mathematics Awareness Month and their focus this year’s theme is Mathematics and Art. The relation of art and mathematics has to do with one of the greatest artist and engineer the world has ever known. Leonard da Vinci was a man the exuded confidence and wisdom as seen in Figure One Ams.com states, “some individuals known as artists have needed or use mathematical thinking to carry out their artistic vision . . . such an artist was Leonardo da Vinci” (2). Da Vinci’s most famous piece of art is the Mona Lisa as seen in Figure Two, it is a painting that is described as art and nothing more or less. This cannot be said for other pieces of Da Vinci’s work. Take Figure Three for example, it is Da Vinci’s rendition of a helicopter. This is a perfect example of how art and mathematics can come together. The juxtaposition is clear. Math and art both have to follow some rules but they also have a free flowing element to them. Even math where you have to follow rules allows its self to have a bit of freethinking in it. “Essentially, if art isn't washing away the dust accumulating on your soul, it might be cleaning up your brain instead.” (3)

Figure One 

Figure Two 

Figure Three 

Bibliography (Pictures – In Order of Appearance)

1.     http://hypescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/vida-e-obra-de-leonardo-da-vinci-6.jpg

2.     http://webneel.com/leonardo-da-vinci-paintings-drawings 

3.     http://www.buzzle.com/images/public-domain/flying-helicopter.jpg

Bibliography (Quotes – In Order of Appearance)

1.     http://www.art-quotes.com/auth_search.php?authid=243#.VSr5i1z4tFI

2.     http://www.history.com/topics/leonardo-da-vinci

3.     http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/08/how-art-changes-your-brain_n_5567050.html

Art and Culture - Week 1

When thinking of what I enjoy more when it comes to art and science I would have to go with art, it’s just nicer to look at, take figure on for example. I have never thought of science and art as two cultures that are working against each other until we read Two Cultures. When I was in middle school we had art class and science class, the two were always separated but equally valued, the curriculum was meant to be equal in all subjects (1) but this changed when I got to college. The arts to me are language arts classes, history and your traditional paining and drawing. Science on the other had is math, engineering and technology. To relate this to UCLA is quite easy, all you have to do is look at our campus as seen in Figure Two. UCLA students refer to our campus in two parts, North Campus and South Campus. While they are both part of our campus they teach two entirely different things. North Campus is responsible for teaching students what would be considered the arts like English and DESMA while South Campus is responsible for the sciences like math and geology which are housed there. This did not have much effect on me until the reading, and then it made perfect sense. If you asked me to tell you anything about geology I would not be able to help you out at all and the same would go for the geology students when asked about history. This should not be the case. I think we should be able to specialize in what we want to but I also believe that we should be well rounded. Other countries have mastered this but the US is having a hard time with it. We currently rank 15 in the world as to how good our education is according to info.com (2) this is also easily seen in Figure Three. This seems a bit strange to me when we are one of if not the most powerful country in the world. While we are ranked a bit low in education we come in second in spending per student (3). This does not make sense. The leaders of this country could do themselves a favor and read Two Cultures. We should equally value all subjects so we come out to be better-educated people. I’ve heard many politicians say we need to change education by spending money on it when the answer is if we change how we are teaching we can spend less money and educate the students in a better way. 

Figure One 

  

Figure Two

Figure Three 

Bibliography in order of appearance (Websites)

     1.  http://curriculum.princetonk12.org/curriculum/Middle_School/

     2.  http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0923110.html

     3.   http://super-economy.blogspot.com/2010/12/amazing-truth-about-pisa-scores-usa.html

Bibliography in order of appearance (Pictures) 

     

     1. http://montessorimuddle.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Street-Art-by-David-Walker-in-        London-England.jpg

     2. http://www.csup.ucla.edu/newsroom-events/UCLACampusMap.jpg/image_view_fullscreen

     3. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0923110.html