Posts

michaelpadilladesma9-week9

Image
Together, space and art creates some amazing work as we can see in the readings and lectures from this week. One artist who really fascinated me was Richard Clar, founder of Art Technologies in 1987 as liaison between the worlds of art and technology. His artwork turned towards art-in-space in 1982 with a NASA-approved art payload for the U.S. Space Shuttle. His art-in-space project, Collision, creates an orbiting constellation sculpture that focuses on the serious issue of orbital debris which is seen below (Clar 2003). I also really enjoyed Chesley Bonestell's work who is known for his cover art on science fiction magazines. He created paintings depicting astronomical scenes and space flight explorations decades before the first manned missions (Bonestell 2023).  Soret, Jean. “Collision II.” ASPECT , 2010, www.aspectmag.com/works/collision-ii. Artists have played a significant yet underappreciated role in our exploration of the solar system. They are the ones who truly synthesize...

michaelpadillaDESMA9-week 8

Image
 I really enjoyed this week's topic and the artwork that is created with nanotechnology is truly mesmerizing. I think it is so cool to see scientists and artists collaborate together to create such wonderful work. For example, Professor Vesna's article with nanoscientist Jim Gimzewski was very intriguing and helped me understand how nanotechnologies influence art concepts. I honestly did not know too much about nanotechnology leading up to this lesson so I appreciated this topic even more. Both nanotechnology and media arts have a common ground in addressing the issues of manipulation, particularly sensory perception, questioning our reaction and changing the way we think (Vesna and Gimzewski). This article and the lectures showed me how nanotechnology has real potential to impact every aspect of our lives, from our bodies to even the clothes we wear. The recent progress towards using nanoparticles in real applications was discussed as a method to create the next generation of ...

michaelpadillaDESMA9-week 7

Image
 Reading about Professor's collaboration with scientist Mark Cohen was pretty cool. I thought it was really interesting how they connected neuroscience with art. According to the article, "Hundreds of LED lights in the crowns shifted colors in relation to the oscillating degree of synchronicity between participants' brainwave frequencies" (Albu 2021).  Below is a picture of students exploring unspoken and visual communication using EEG technology. It is truly amazing how art accesses many of the advanced processes of the human brain, such as intuitive analysis, expressivity, and embodied cognition. Art also enhances the process of learning by nourishing attentional, cognitive, and emotional capacities. This week I learned that there is increasing evidence in the field of neuroscience that art enhances brain function by impacting brain wave patterns, emotions and the nervous system (ACRM 2020). The thought experiment with Schrodinger's cat was an intriguing way of ...

michaelpadillaDESMA9-EVENT 3

Image
  Registration email    The final event I attended was the cosmological elements #3 exhibition. This event mainly focused on the ideas of floating civilizations and human futures in space. The artists presented their work and had some very intriguing ideas of their hopes and fears of the future in space. Many of the artists connected science with their visions that they dream of in space. Ultimately connecting art and science together with science fiction aesthetics in their projects, which relates to our course. Starting from the dialogue of these works, further works tackle human senses, memories, dreams, missions, and visions that blur into sci fi inspired aesthetics, but bring back their own dreams and connect to being in the world (Schnugg 2021). They are truly inspired by science fiction and their work is just mesmerizing. I thought the moon geese documentary was funny but a good way of showing how we are training humans for space.  Institute  of Isolation...

michaelpadillaDESMA9

Image
Artists have started to merge biotechnology with their art as a way to engage audiences while also experimenting with new technologies that may be useful in the future. One project that really stood out to me was  Revival Field by Mel Chin. According to Chin, "the initial experiment was a replicated field test using special hyperaccumulator plants to extract heavy metals from contaminated soil" (Chin 2003). I thought this project was compelling mainly because it started off as a conceptual artwork with the intent to sculpt a site's ecology.  Graves, Kathy. “Mel Chin & More.” Public Art Saint Paul , 15 Sept. 2017, publicartstpaul.org/announcing-30th-anniversary-line/. By combining art and modern biotechnology together, artists aim to reach toward new understandings about the human condition, our bodies, the environment and other species, which I think is very intriguing.  GFP Bunny is an artwork by Eduardo Kac that consists of a fluorescent rabbit through molec...

michaelpadillaDESMA9-Event 2

Image
                                            Registration email                                 Curators and artists The second event I attended was the cosmological elements #2 exhibition. I attended the first one and they were both very intriguing. I believe they are having one more event so I recommend everyone to attend. It was really incredible to see all of the compelling artwork and actually hear from the artists themselves, which was my favorite part. The things they come up with and how they come up with it is truly inspiring. One of my favorite artworks displayed was "Exobiotanica" by Makoto Azuma, which featured a bouquet of flowers launched into space on a specialized vessel. Super-high resolution cameras equipped on the vessels captured an image of the bouquet every second ...

michaelpadillaDESMA9

Image
This week's topic was very intriguing to me, mainly because my parents are both in the medical field so I have always been fascinated by the body and medicine. I have not been keeping up to date with medical technologies but after doing some research I was impressed. Obviously the development of multiple safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines in less than a year may be considered one of the greater scientific accomplishments in human history. AI is one of the most exciting technologies changing the healthcare landscape. It is very valuable when it comes to detecting diseases early and for confirming an accurate diagnosis quicker. According to Hannah Burke from ProClinical, "In breast cancer care, the use of AI is enabling the review of mammograms to be 30 times faster with 99% accuracy, reducing the need for unnecessary biopsies (Burke 2022). Drug research and discovery is one of the more recent applications of AI in life sciences. This technology is able to create more efficien...