Posts

Week 3: Robotics + Art

The historical transformation of art mediums and formats brought on by industrialization and technological innovation has influenced our perceptions as to what can be truly labeled as "art." Benjamin Walter makes the observation of the belief that the age of mechanical reproduction has withered the authenticity or the "aura" of a work of art, as we move away from the "original" (1936). That is to say that in this vast digital age of video, mass communications, and the Internet, the line between original and reproduction is indistinguishable because pictures, words, sounds, and ideas are all "received, deconstructed, rearranged, and restored wherever they are seen, heard, or stored" (Davis, 1991-95).  Text References Douglas, Davis, "The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction," Leonardo , Vol 28, No. 5, pp. 381-386., (1991-95), Accessed 20 Apr. 2024. Walter, Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction....
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 2: Math + Art

Image
As mathematics forms the foundation of the very world we live in, it has always long informed artistic and scientific practice and innovation. Despite one’s seemingly innate rejection of the other, the arts and sciences go hand-in-hand with mathematics. One of the most evident ways that this reality is actualized is through the concept of mathematical perspective. Just as visual art utilizes perspective and geometric principles to play with illusion and dimensionalities, science is also known to use mathematical models and equations to make observations and quantify new theories.  Even stories such as “Flatland,” by Edwin A. Abbott, are creative works that simplify the fundamentals of our reality, which he described in terms of geometric shapes and explanations, especially from a matter of perspective. In understanding a simultaneously mathematical and artistic perspective of the world, we gain a fuller conceptualization of not just abstract pieces of art that transcend perspective...
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 1: Two Cultures

Image
  My name is Karena Sanchez and I am a fourth year here at UCLA with a major in Sociology. I am what one would typically consider a humanities student, however I’d argue that Sociology dances the line between humanities and science as a highly variable and interdisciplinary field of study. Sociology, while it remains a very theoretical and social research-based field, is very similar to various fields of technology in that technology bridges the arts and sciences and is informed by science and philosophy, merging the arts, sciences, and humanities into a separate, “third culture” (Vesna, 2001). In this, sociology emerges as part of this third culture. The division between arts and sciences at UCLA, and in higher education more broadly, is stark and even transcends into physical markers of division, however has been exposed to us fairly early in our public education.      Like most of us, the different disciplines were always distinctly separated across the curricul...
Post a Comment
Read more