Sunday, April 24, 2016

Medical Technology

I’ve always had an interest in medical technology. In fact, at some point, I wanted to be a radiologist and then an ultrasound technician. Medical technology has always struck me as fascinating in the way that we can literally use technology to see through someone’s body. Medical technology an intrinsic part of society and, thus, do bring a different conceptualization of art to the forefront. As Professor Vesna mentions in lecture that medical technologies such as X-ray, MRI and CAT scan are all in fact forms of art in someway or another. MRI scans are also to be considered as a unique or different type of portrait in which it’s emphasis is on the inside of the human anatomy. In lecture, Professor Vesna also talks about how back then, medicine was in fact considered to be art because physicians who used tools or technology were not considered doctors. If we think about the medical world now, most doctors don’t consider chiropractors to be real doctors, but I believe that each medical field has its own uniqueness that is a work of both art and medical. Medicine is art in my eyes, regardless. It’s a miracle worker, something so extraordinary that saves lives and physicians and doctors are both artists and medical gurus.

Growing up, I’ve always had an interest in medical entertainment, so television shows like Greys Anatomy, House, Hawthorne, Scrubs, and even the latest Botched. Even though most of the shows are fabricated and overly exaggerated, I’ve still learned a great deal about medical terminology than I did throughout my educational years. Not to mention, the drama incorporated into it made it fun to watch and learn at the same time. That’s what sparked my interest in joining the medical field, however, it has yet to work out that way as my dreams and career goals have changed since I was younger. That’s not to say that I still don’t find medical technology fascinating because I in fact very much do.



A memory in particular is when I made a plastic surgeon and she told me why she wanted to become one. She said that when people go to see a doctor it’s usually to fix them and most of the time the mood or attitude is not so uplifting because of an illness or injury. But with plastic surgery, you make people feel beautiful and give them something that honestly makes them feel great and happy. Understanding plastic surgery—and the performance of medical procedures in general—as a form of art also peaked my interest. Plastic surgeons reconstruct and mold parts of the body, they use the human body, like artists use a canvas.


David M. Cutler and Mark McClellan make great claims in their article Is Technological Change In Medicine Worth It? About how Medical technology is valuable if the benefits of medical advances exceed the costs. They analyze technological change in five conditions to determine if this is so. In four of the conditions—heart attacks, low-birthweight infants, depression, and cataracts—the estimated benefit of technological change is much greater than the cost. In the fifth condition, breast cancer, costs and benefits are about of equal magnitude. They concluded that medical spending as a whole is worth the increased cost of care. In my opinion, medical technology is incredibly necessary and has changed the medical world by a landslide, saving more and more lives every year with it’s advancements and improvements.


Casini, S. "Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between
Science and the Arts." Configurations 19.1 (2011): 73-99. Project MUSE. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
Cutler, David M., and Mark McClellan. Is Technological Change In Medicine Worth It? Health Affairs,
Casini, S. "Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts." Configurations 19.1 (2011): 73-99. Project MUSE. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
Jameson, Elizabeth. "Brain Cartographies." Image. Artspan. N.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.  
Orlan. "The Reincarnation of Saint-Orlan." Photograph. Thisisnotanart. 2014. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
Space.com Staff. California Science Center. Digital image. 10 Oct. 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2016
Staines, Judith. "Culturebase.net - a Unique Online Source on Contemporary International Artists." Zoran Todorovic Artist Portrait. Web. 24 Apr. 2016. <http://www.culturebase.net/artist.php?188>  
Vesna, Victoria. "Medicine pt1." Cole UC online. YouTube, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
"20 Predictions in Medicine And Healthcare for 2014: From DIY Biotech to Mind-Controlled
Exoskeletons - The Medical Futurist." The Medical Futurist. N.p., 03 Jan. 2014. Web. 25 Apr.

2016. <http://medicalfuturist.com/2014/01/03/2014-predictions/>.

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Industrialization, robotics/technology, and art


Industrialization changed society dramatically in the U.S where a prosperous middle-class developed, cities became crowded and workers lived in unhealthful conditions. The more factories that were built the more people moved to cities to find work. Industrialization and urbanization was aided by new technologies in transportation, architecture, and more. It provoked rapid growth in cities, rapid demographic change, and increased the gap between rich and poor. While society has reared towards reliance and dependence on technology and such things like the internet and “robotization”, I still believe that there are jobs available. However, these jobs are more “tech-savy” ones that essentially cut out a proportion of the population that could be eligible. To say it’s a serious problem might be a stretch, but there may be some truth saying that now, technology can perform a lot of tasks that were done by hand for centuries. Basically, making human work sometimes not as needed nor essential when technology can simply to do it in a much efficient timely manner. As we saw throughout lecture videos, robotization, technology, and art are all fascinating, especially when they are all combined into one. As discussed in the lecture video, we can't look at robotics without looking at industrialization. Artists have been working with robots since the early 19020’s. Sci-Fi visions now seem almost cane.

In addition, we can think of these changes in the sense of the transition from print to digital as  sort of fast-forward replay on a multidimensional scale of what happened after Johannes Gutenberg invented printing by movable type over five hundred years ago.
Referencing Henry Ford in relation to industrialization is a big topic that most can recognize. During that time, cars were only meant for the wealthy. By developing an assembly line for workers he was able to pay them well enough to evolve into a middle class but it  created a lot of problems because of taylorism coming into the culture. Workers were treated as part of the machine and it was a fast movement of mechanisation. Turning to Karel Chapek who coined the term robotics we hear about the mechanisation of workers and how workers are being replaced by machines. This is closer to what we would call a cyborg.
On another and more present note, not only is it tough to keep up with living standards by maintaining a steady job, but it’s also difficult to land a well paid job, let alone a job in general. Meanwhile, technology hasn’t made things any easier supply people with jobs since they are able to take care of work that companies won’t have to pay people to do. In order to fix this, I believe in finding a way to work in unity with people and technology rather than people versus technology. Although, technology can do work in a timely manner and sometimes more sufficiently than humans, people like human interaction and communication. The customer service is the traditional yet beneficial number one seller.





Cybornetic organism-both cyborotic, biological, interactive systems



"David J Rodger ¦ Science Fiction & Dark Fantasy." David J Rodger Science Fiction Dark
Fantasy.N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2016.
"Extreme Humor: Amazing Robotic Art, Christopher Conte." Extreme Humor: Amazing
Robotic Art, Christopher Conte. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2016.
ml>.
History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2016.
"Industrialization and Global Capitalism." : How Did Workers Respond to the Industrial
Revolution and How Did Their Vision of Society Compare to Industrialists? N.p., n.d.
Web. 17 Apr.2016.
Lall, Sanjaya. "Technological Capabilities and Industrialization." World Development 20.2
(1992): 165-86. Web.
"Relating the Rapidly Changing Present to the Distant Past as Far as Book History Is
Concerned." N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2016.
Smith, Terry. Making the Modern: Industry, Art, and Design in America. Chicago: U of
Chicago, 1993.Print.
"Untitled Document." Untitled Document. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2016.
<http://webs.bcp.org/sites/vcleary/ModernWorldHistoryTextbook/IndustrialRevolution/resposestoIR.html>.

Sunday, April 10, 2016

The Relationship between Mathematics, Art and Science

While math and art might be seen as two ends of the spectrum, there is actually a large amount of math in art. Just as mentioned in lecture, the connection of science and art is through mathematics. We continue to move towards making math and art, art and science. Unlike many, I actually had amazing math and science teachers that initially made me love both subjects. The term de-geniuses by R. Buckminister Fuller comes to mind when he says that every person has an inner genius, but the education system tends to de-genius our perspective. Mathematics is a system of signals and the focus of irregular and regular shapes are similar to art. Mathematical formula might be used to draw shapes. Linda Dalrymple Henderson makes great points throughout her study about art techniques and science in relation to the theory of special and general relativity surfaced into the world of art, in which was influenced by the paradigm shift.


The Mona Lisa by artist Leonardo Da vinci contains dimensions from a golden rectangle as well as seen in her body. If we divide that rectangle with a line drawn across her eyes, we get another golden rectangle, meaning that the proportion of her head length to her eyes is golden.




Brunelleschi, as mentioned in lecture, trained in the principal of geometry, was credited with the first correct formulation of linear perspective and made the discovering a single vanishing point rule in 1314. He understand the concept of the single vanishing point, scale, and length of a picture depending on its distance of the length of the canvas all using mathematical principal. This way he controlled the position of the spectator so the geometry is correct.




More particularly, I had an experience with fractals in one of my math classes  my freshman year of college. Fractals are a mathematical concept which are both sold directly as art, and can be used in the production of other art involving trees, clouds and coastlines, as well as many other features in nature. The class was caught by surprise by the fractal sitting at the front of the room.






Juxtaposition of mathematics, industrialization, art and science actually becomes more simple and easier to understand as our perspective and society changes and develops. While many can see that math, art and science are far off from each other, the perspective is much clearer after this weeks research. Math, industrialization, art and science are much closer than we think. We can think back Bill Nye the Science Guy, an American TV show where he mixes the serious science of everyday things with fast-paced action and humor. Here we can see that science has been built into entertainment where education has altered and developed to teach and entertain this generation. It’s a “cool” way of learning.




Works Cited


"Bill Nye | Official Website for Bill Nye The Science Guy." Bill Nye. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. "Earth’s Most Stunning Natural Fractal Patterns." Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital. Web. 11
Apr. 2016.
Parveen, Nikhat. "MATHEMATICS AND ART." MATHEMATICS AND ART. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
"MAM2003 Essay: Mathematics and Art -- So Many Connections." MAM2003 Essay:
Mathematics and Art -- So Many Connections. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
"Mathematics In Art." How Has Mathematics Been Used in the Work of Artists? Web. 11 Apr.
2016.
Morris, Roderick Conway. "How Math Put It All in Perspective." New York Times (2001). Web.



Sunday, April 3, 2016

A Look into C.P. Snow's Perspective of Two Cultures


The two cultures were coined by C.P. Snow as a signifier of his perspective between the separations of art and science. In 2009, New York Times wrote an article on C.P Snow stating, “Snow’s famous lament was that “the intellectual life of the whole of Western society is increasingly being split into two polar groups,” consisting of scientists on the one hand and literary scholars on the other. Snow largely blamed literary types for this “gulf of mutual incomprehension.” Snow believes that scientists do in fact have the answers to the entire future. People ignored science as a vocation, which prevents us from solving the world’s “main issue,” the wealth gap caused by industrialization, which threatens global stability.” I was born and raised in a small town and in 2014, I moved to the heart of entertainment, Los Angeles, California. Now, this may seem like an odd way to relate two cultures, but from my perspective, from a small town to an extremely overwhelming large city, I see two different worlds. I’m surrounded by different cultures everywhere I go, school, home, cities, church, even walking on the street.

     NY Times states, “Snow’s expression of this optimism is dated, yet his thoughts about progress are more relevant today than his cultural typologies.” This author in particular wants to see action done with C.P Snow’s work of the Two Cultures rather than just citing and referencing it.

    UCLA’s campus is the perfect example to explain this concept of “two cultures. Initially, our campus is split into two, north campus and south campus. While it is a very well known fact, there is much distinction that goes with each side.North campus are humanity majors like sociology, history, etc and South campus consists of science majors in which creates classifications and distinctions that I mentioned earlier. One thing that I’ve noticed is the different feel that you get from your surroundings and environment. I can walk to South campus and feel like it’s another world, while science majors can feel the same when they walk over to North campus.



    C.P. Snow remarks in his 1959 lecture, “Literature changes more slowly than science”. I guess I never really thought about the collision of art and science until this week started. However, Kevin Kelly says “For this current generation of Nintendo kids, their technology is their culture. When they reached the point (as every generation of youth does) of creating the current fads, the next funny thing happened: Nerds became cool.” This really made me think about how reared our generation is and how dependent and reliant we are on technology. I constantly hear my grandparents talk about how they remember when they were children how they didn’t even have TV’s and when they wanted to have fun they would play outside. Technology was basically non-existent during their time or at least it wasn’t as popular.



http://www.stoa.org.uk/topics/two-cultures/index.html


Works Cited:


"Devices for Inquiry." Devices for Inquiry. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.
<http://devices4inquiry.aisencc.com/category/uncategorized/page/4/>.
Dizikes, Peter. "Our Two Cultures." The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 Mar. 2009
Web. 03 Apr. 2016.
"Faversham Stoa." -- The Two Cultures Debate. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.
"LifeAbsorbed." LifeAbsorbed. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.
<http://lifeabsorbed.com/tag/sculpture-garden/>.
N.p., n.d. Web. <http://taniaritchie.com/2013/08/03/c-p-snows-two-cultures>.
Snow, C. P. "The Rede Lecture (1959)." The Two Cultures and The Scientific Revolution
(1959): 1-52. Web.
"The Lovely South Campus." UCLA Life Blog. N.p., 16 Feb. 2012. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.
<http://blog.admissions.ucla.edu/2012/02/16/the-lovely-south-campus/>.
Vesna, Victoria. "Toward a Third Culture: Being In Between." Leonardo 34.2 (2001): 121-25.



Web.