Week 9: Space + Art

Human beings are always longing to take a closer look to what is not so close to them, that is why people have put in huge amount of time and effort in developing advancements of outer space since the time of Nicolaus Copernicus.

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe. Copernicus’ epochal book, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, published just before his death in 1543, is often regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy and the defining epiphany that began the scientific revolution. His heliocentric model, with the Sun at the center of the universe, demonstrated that the observed motions of celestial objects can be explained without putting Earth at rest in the center of the universe. His work stimulated further scientific investigations, becoming a landmark in the history of science that is often referred to as the Copernican Revolution, which went hand in hand with the revolution in art and culture during Renaissance.

Although we have launched tons of spacecrafts into the space, there is still large area of unknown in the universe. The video clip, “Powers of Ten”, is interesting because it successfully integrates both science and arts. It demonstrates how the view changes as we zoom out each time at the step of power of ten in meters. The video is starting off with a couple lying on grass and ending with reaching into the outer space. I have a strong feeling that the space around us is full of beauty. We shall take advantage of today’s advanced technology to fully appreciate the artistic beauty in space, from the tiniest atomic particle to the enormous universe.

Citations:

1.”Nicolaus Copernicus.” . N.p.. Web. 30 Nov 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus>.

2.”Encyclopedia Astronautica.” . N.p.. Web. 30 Nov 2013. <http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=X&tbo=d&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS472US472&authuser=0&biw=1476&bih=815&tbm=isch&tbnid=eFUr6XJYzFrsvM:&im>.

3.”Copernican System.” The Galileo Project. N.p.. Web. 30 Nov  2013. <http://galileo.rice.http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/theories/copernican_system.html>.

4.Powers of Ten™ (1977). Dir. Vesna Victoria. Film. 30 Nov 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0fKBhvDjuy0>

5. Space pt4. Dir. Vesna Victoria. Film. 30 Nov 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=J5ClKO6AJPo>.

Week 8 | Nanotechnology + Art

Nanotechnology was first used by Norie Taniguchi from Tokyo Univesity in a 1974 conference to describe semiconductor process such as thin film desposition and ion beam milling exhibiting characteristics control on the order of a nanometer. Nanotechnology gives people the ability to look closer to the nano world, where lie the answers to many problems hard to be solved. For example, nanotechnology improves chemical engineering by making chemical bonds tunable. By Scanning Tunneling Microscope, scientists are able to experiment chemical substance in a level of atom, which is exactly the same idea brought up by Richard Feynman that “the principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atoms”.

Another application of nanotechnology is in the field of nano-medicine, which includes nano-therapy and nano-treatment. One interesting example is that people can use nanodots to tag certain disease within animal body, thus trace and identify how the condition of disease evolve while during the treatment.

Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology is a landmark in the history of nanotechnology. Drexler imagines a world where the entire Library of Congress can fit on a chip the size of a sugar cube and where universal assemblers, tiny machines that can build objects atom by atom, will be used for everything from medicinal robots that help clear capillaries to environmental scrubbers to clear pollutants from the air. In the book, Drexler first proposes the gray goo scenario—his prediction of what might happen if molecular nanotechnology were used to build uncontrollable self-replicating machines.

Nanotechnology is the tool for scientist and artist to create a whole new world beyond people’s imagination. It vastly expands the potential of development of science and art, because now they could reach out the hands in a tiny yet fascinating and profound domain.

Citations:

1. CRN. N.p.. Web. 24 Nov 2013. <http://crnano.org/whatis.htm>.

2.  Jingna Zhao, ”Turning to Nanotechnology for Pollution Control.”  Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science., Feb 2009 Web. 24 Nov 2013. <http://dujs.dartmouth.edu/winter-2009/turning-to-nanotechnology-for-pollution-control-applications-of-nanoparticles#.UpHOREDa5a1>.

3. ”Engines of Creation.” . N.p.. Web. 24 Nov 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engines_of_Creation>.

4.  ”Nanotechnology.” . N.p.. Web. 24 Nov 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology>.

5.”Nanomedicine.” Wikipedia. N.p., 4 2012. Web. 24 Nov 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanomedicine>.

Week 7: Neuroscience+ Art

As one of the newest sciences, neuroscience stands at the front of scientific studies and researches. The most basic part of neuroscience comes from phrenology, which was first introduced by Franz Joseph Gall. He claims that human brain functions as different parts but integrated.

 While the study on human brain went deeper and further, it elevated to psychological level from structural level when Sigmund Freud wrote his master piece The Interpretation of Dreams. This book opened a window, through which people understand more about themselves and become more conscious about their inner life by studying their unconscious dreams, since dreams are forms of wish fulfillment-attempts by the unconscious to resolve a conflict of some sort, whether something recent or something from the recesses of the past. Also the images in the dreams are often not what they appear to be, rather the unconscious must distort and wrap the meaning of its information to make it through the censorship, and need deeper interpretation if they are to inform on the structures of the unconscious.

The topic of LSD also interests me, because it represents a typical issue raised when the development of neuroscience and medical technology imposes an unprecedented challenge on human being. LSD is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug , well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed- and open-eye visuals, synesthesia, an altered sense of time and spiritual experiences. It is used mainly as an entheogen, recreational drug, and as an agent in psychedelic therapy. Some artists use LSD to inspire their creativities. LSD is non-addictive, not known to cause brain damage, and has extremely low toxicity relative to dose. However, adverse psychiatric reactions such as anxiety, paranoia, and delusions are possible. This controversial drug draws discussion through the society.

There is no doubt that neuroscience gives people an alternative to understand themselves and contributes to the development of humanities and arts as well as to science and technology. Yet, we have to apply them in a proper way with a correct attitude. It is supposed to remember that curiosity killed the cat, especially when we face something new or things we really want to expose.

Citations:

1.Victoria, Vesna, dir. Neuroscience-pt2.mov. Film. 15 Nov 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlg5wXHWZNI&feature=player_embedded>.

2.Victoria, Vesna, dir. Neuroscience-pt3.mov. Film. 15 Nov 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlg5wXHWZNI&feature=player_embedded>.

3.. “The Interpretation of Dreams.” . N.p.. Web.15 Nov 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Interpretation_of_Dreams>.

4.”Phrenology.” . N.p.. Web. 15 Nov 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology>.

5.”Lysergic acid diethylamide.” . N.p.. Web. 15 Nov 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide>.

6.“The truth about LSD.” . N.p.. Web.15 Nov 2013. <http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/lsd.html>

Week 6 | BioTech + Art

Bio-Technology is always being at the forefront of development of human kind, and it needs imagination and creativity of art to stimulate its further development. Bio Technology intends to solve various types of problems people meet, so it is dynamic and constantly evolving, and often it crosses the borderline and touches other fields of study. One good example would be the collaboration between Bio Technology and art, not simply mixed, but rather in a sense of chemical reaction.

In Professor Victoria’s lecture, I am greatly inspired by the example of Joe Davis. I cannot agree any more with his perspective, which goes as following, “The most absurd things are connected in very absurd ways. I like to take the least connected things and try to build connections between them.” Davis made many great works both contributed to bio-techs and arts, including Microvenus, a project in protest of the censorship of radio messages sent into deep space. Davis’ idea is to put the human genome into a hardy strain of bacteria and send it into deep space. Additionally, the sculpture Earth Sphere, a landmark fog fountain at Kendall Square near the MIT campus; Rubisco Stars, a transmission of a message to nearby stars from the Arecibo Observatory radiotelescope in Puerto Rico; New Age Ruby Falls, a project to create an artificial aurora using a 100,000 watt electron beam fired into the magnetosphere from a NASA space shuttle. His works are not just of value of scientific and artistic study, but more importantly, Davis eschews the art versus science argument, insisting that he speaks both languages and could not possibly tear the two disciplines apart in his own mind.

The impact of vinculum of Bio Techs and arts on the human society is immeasurably significant. It shows the public how to create enormous value through trans-boundary scientific studies. Meanwhile, it raises people’s concerns on ethical standards of scientists and artists.

Citations:

1. Gibbs, W. Wayt. “Art as a Form of Life.” Scientific America. N.p.. Web. 9 Nov 2013. <http://www.viewingspace.com/genetics_culture/pages_genetics_culture/gc_w03/davis_j_webarchive/davis_profile_sciam/jd.htm>

2. ”Arts news.” . N.p., 13 2001. Web. 9 Nov 2013. <http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2001/artsnews-0613.html>.

3. ”Microvenus.” . N.p.. Web. 9 Nov 2013. <http://www.viewingspace.com/genetics_culture/pages_genetics_culture/gc_w03/davis_microvenus.htm>.

4. Davis, Joe . “RuBisCo Stars” and the Riddle of Life.” . N.p.. Web. 9 Nov 2013. <http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=10283>.

5. ”Joe Davis.” Wikipedia. N.p.. Web. 9 Nov 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Davis_(artist)>.

Midterm PDF

This is the link to my midterm pdf:
http://www.slideshare.net/CainGu/sijia-gu-desma9midterm