Lauren McCabe DESMA9

This week's lectures, guest speaker, and readings were all about space and its relation to art. I already find space very fascinating so this week was a lot of fun to learn more about the subject and how art is involved. Space is a very complicated topic since everything that we study in it is so far away. I found the "Powers of Ten" video very engrossing because it demonstrates how far away things like planets and stars actually are to us humans on Earth. It is hard to wrap my head around how most of the things we know are from assumptions or calculations based off of assumptions, but many of our theories cannot be proved until we further explore outer space.  I also love the idea behind space being portrayed in science fiction movies and books. The lectures mention that many ideas that have potential are often brought about in stories, and later on other scientists adopt these ideas. One example of this is the space elevator that Arthur C. Clark writes about in his nove...

This week combined the arts and nanotechnology. The lectures and readings dive very deep into the understanding of how although nanotech was discovered and researched fairly recently, it is our future. By virtue of research after predefined term nanotechnology, scientists now believe that it is not just technology, but a new branch of science. In his lecture, Dr. Gimzeski explains how nanotechnology is already found in nature and other parts of life but has the potential to be in all electronics, agriculture, energy, medicine, pretty much any aspect of science and/or technology.  To me, this is kind of alarming given how little time scientists have been actually studying and working with nanotechnology. In Dr. Gimzewki and Professor Vesna's article, "The Nano Syndrome: Blurring of fact & fiction in the construction of a new science", they explain how small a nanometer is; they do this by " comparing the nanometer to the thickness of a human hair: the average thic...

For my second event, I watched about 10 students present their midterm proposals. There were a variety of proposals all including the interrelations between the arts and math, science, robotics, and/or medical technology. Overall, it was a very insightful and inspiring event. If this event were to happen again in the future, I would highly recommend to attend since it provided such outstanding information that led to great discussion.  As for the actual presentations, a few really stood out to me: Sol Art and the Immortality Pill. Sol Art's goal is to promote preservation of the environment. Its vision is to continue the work already being done with solar conservation using a new appealing approach to it; Sol Art comprises of solar panels covered in images and design rather than the basic bulky looking model. I thought this was a great idea because not only will it help improve our world and get more people involved with limiting greenhouse gas emissions, but also allow people to s...

This week combines neuroscience and art and describes the way to further explore our brains and self. The "Neuroculture" article explains how diving deep into neuroscience reveals aspects of our individuality and what makes us, us. Overall, this week really sparked my interest because neuroscience helps to explain the things that people do everyday.  Siddharth Ramakrishnan's presentation really influenced my learning this week. He went over a variety of concepts including how we imagine things in our head, using tarot cards in relation to neuroscience, our intuition, and many others. For the imagery part, we were asked to imagine many objects and rate how well we could picture it in our head. The results were fascinating; some participants could't picture anything in their heads while others could clearly visualize the object. We later learned that you could train yourself to become better at the visualization, and how this helps many athletes or professionals when im...

This week's material was very interesting while it demonstrated the connections between art and biotech. Biotechnology is defined as " the exploitation of biological processes for industrial and other purposes, especially the genetic manipulation of microorganisms for the production of antibiotics, hormones, etc." (Oxford). Because biotech focuses mainly on genetic manipulations, many debate whether some of the practices and experiments  are ethical or not.  Professor Vesna's lecture videos were the most influential to me this week. She provided many examples of scientists and artists and what they have done or are working on that combine the two fields of art and biotechnology. One that really stood out to me was the Alba rabbit, better known as the "glowing" rabbit. This albino bunny had genes inserted from a fluorescent jelly fish, which made it glow a green color when exposed to blue light. Eduardo Kac, an artist, established Alba as his own art piece. T...