Week 8 - NanoTech + Art

In our world we are surrounded by Nanotechnology, and most people have no clue what nanotechnology even is. Most people think that its another form of technology that's man-made like our laptops, cell phones or other stuff, but in fact, nanotechnology refers to technology that is manipulated on a molecular level, rather than what we see in front of our eyes. Nanotechnology helps create things much smaller like stronger sunscreen, or corrosion resistant plants, so on other words, nanotechnology is used for enhancing and strengthening things in our modern world today.

https://www.amazon.com/Banana-Boat-Performance-Sunscreens-Technology/dp/B0030ZEGDY

One of the biggest movies that nanotechnology has been included in is Ant Man. In the movie, the doctors are talking amongst each other and discussing about using a shrink-ray, hence the Ant Man. The technology is in the suit that Ant Man wears, which allows him to shrink down to the size of an ant, and back and forth from both sizes whenever it is needed. However, he also has the powers to shrink down to the size of an atom, and enter the quantum realm, which he ends up doing near the end of the movie, which is where the scientists speak about the technology they're using being even smaller than "Nano".

http://getwallpapers.com/collection/ant-man-wallpapers

One way that nanotechnology is being included today is in the world of sports. I read that nanotechnology is being added into the tennis rackets, to increase power and control over the ball from the athlete using it. This got me intrigued because this could be added into many other sports, like golf or volleyball or even basketball. Such as, volleyball and basketball, adding extra stitching or complex designs in the leather of the balls to increase power/speed and accuracy over the ball. In my opinion, nanotechnology could in fact be the next big thing in sports, and could take the sports we athletes play today to the next level.

https://www.sportsmomsurvivalguide.com/replacing-vs-restringing-a-tennis-racket/

“Nanotechnology: A Simple and Fun Introduction!” Explain That Stuff, 5 Dec. 2018, www.explainthatstuff.com/nanotechnologyforkids.html.

ScreenPrism. “ScreenPrism.” Does Technology like That Seen in "Big Hero 6" Actually Exist, screenprism.com/insights/article/does-any-technology-like-that-seen-in-big-hero-6-actually-exist.

“NanoArt: Nanotechnology and Art.” Academy of NanoArt, nanoart.org/nanoart-nanotechnology-art/.

Dillow, Clay. “The World's First Programmable Nanoprocessor Takes Complex Circuitry to the 

Nanoscale.” Popular Science, 9 Feb. 2011, www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-02/worlds-first-

programmable-nanoprocessor-takes-complex-circuitry-nanoscale.

Gimzewski, Jim, and Victoria Vesna. “The Nanoneme Syndrome: Blurring of Fact and Fiction in the 

Construction of a New Science.” Technoetic Arts, vol. 1, no. 1, 2003, pp. 7–24., doi:10.1386/tear.1.

1.7/0.

Week 7 - Neuroscience + Art

This week we looked at a topic of Neuroscience and Art together and how they work together. Throughout the course so far, we've seen the human body appear multiple times as a piece of art, whether it be a canvas for an expressive medium or the piece of artwork itself, Neuroscience pertains to one of the major organs in a human body, that being the human brain. The human brain is the most complex and most powerful machine known to man. With numerous capabilities for innovation and invention, the human brain is where creativity is born, and the reason why everything in this world today that is man-made is possible.

https://www.brightfocus.org/glaucoma/article/glaucoma-brain-disease

After watching a ted talk from Christopher deCharm, I quickly learned the relationship between Neuroscience/ the human brain and Art, where he uses the techniques of model making. Model making is the process of taking a new idea and creating it into a visual representation of that idea to help understand that idea easier. Through creating artistic models of the human brain, many forms of art can take place to create many different images about the human brain.

https://www.swapnascuisine.com/2014/11/model-of-human-brain-with-fondant.html

In addition to the model makings of the human brain, other artists such as Laura Jade, are creating portraits and sculptures of the human brain with lights lighting up veins and other areas of the brain to mimic movement within the human brain. Some people are also making sculptures and images for information about the human brain used for teaching specific parts of the brain like the Cerebrum, the Cerebellum, the Limbic System, and the Brain Stem, these areas of artwork allow further generations to understand information about the human brain to increase, and improve, as well as help guide understandings about diseases and illnesses related to the human brain and help discover possible cures for such diseases.

https://socratic.org/questions/how-many-parts-is-the-human-brain-divided-into-is-one-of-the-parts-the-hind-brai

deCharms, Christopher. “A Look inside the Brain in Real Time.” TED, Feb. 2008, www.ted.com/talks/christopher_decharms_scans_the_brain_in_real_time. 

Frazzetto, Giovanni, and Suzanne Anker. “Neuroculture.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience, vol. 10, no. 11, 2009, pp. 815–821., doi:10.1038/nrn2736. 

Jung, Carl G. “The Spiritual Problem of Modern Man.” Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 10: Civilization in Transition, 2014, pp. 74–94., doi:10.1515/9781400850976.74.

Shenova. “Let Gorgeous Neuroscience-Inspired Art Bring Some Joy to Your Day.” Shenova, 13 Feb. 2018, shenovafashion.com/blogs/blog/neuroscience-art-gallery. 

“Your ‘Miracle’ Brain, in Full Color: Neuroscience Art.” Migraine Again, 6 Apr. 2019, migraineagain.com/neuroscience-art-miracle-of-brain-dunn/. 

Week 6 - Biotech + Art

In my opinion, I think that life can actually be one of the best expressive mediums for an artist. I feel this way because life is an endless amount of possibility and provides outlooks for what could be. An artist could not only express themselves through their own life in the way that they live and the things they do in their life, but the same thing can be said for animals and plants. Not only do these mediums allow artists to express themselves through them, but with the images of nonexistent creatures and beings, artists can express themselves in endless amounts of ways in which the mind is capable of thinking of. These mediums can be anything from a normal looking house cat, to a cross combination of an alien and a zombie with the face of a flower. The possibilities that life could allow for expressive mediums is endless.

For example, one artist by the name of Samuel Salcedo, expressed himself through the cross-combination of human faces and animals. He created the face of a person with bunny ears to resemble the feelings of a bunny and express the stress the bunny was experiencing. While next to it, the face of a person with bull horns connected, to express the rage feeling being created by bulls to help the viewer understand the feelings of these animals deeper and understand what their feelings would look like to a human being.

https://iloboyou.com/samuel-salcedo-creepy-face-sculptures/

Although there is a fair amount of people who make changes that can be quite disturbing and scary to look at, such as this sculpture from Salcedo above, some artists tend to take a different route and create rather beautiful and astonishing creatures that are pleasant to look and admire. For example, this sculpture from a ceramic art display shows the protection of a wolf and his companion bunny. The sight that tricks the mind and shows how we see creatures being wrong, and they can be friendly, and protective of one another and accept one another into their life.

http://gemshumor.blogspot.com/2013/03/ceramic-animal-amazing-sculptures.html

In my opinion, human creativity is the factor that differentiates the people that live in this world, and is what gives people the characteristic to express themselves freely. Therefore is would be wrong to limit the amount of creativity allowed in the world. Without creativity, most of the appliances we know would not exist today, it was creativity that drove people in our history to create and innovate things that did not exist. Creativity is what allows people to create images or creatures that drive our understanding of everything, from dragons, to the gods of Olympus to zombies in the apocalypse. Our world would not be the same as it is today without creativity and would not allow us to improve our world any further as well. Creativity is the driving factor of our survival and will continue to be the driving factor until there is no more creativity in the world.

https://thelucidplanet.com/riding-your-flow-8-steps-for-enhancing-your-creativity-and-productivity/

Davis, Joe. “Joe Davis: Genetics and Culture.” Joe Davis, geneticsandculture.com/genetics_culture/pages_genetics_culture/gc_w03/davis_joe.htm.

Kelty, Christopher M. “Meanings of Participation: Outlaw Biology?” Journal of Science Communication, Mar. 2010.

Levy, Ellen K. “Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classifications.” Context Providers: Conditions of Meaning in Media Arts, 2011.

Schuler, Barry. “Transcript of ‘Genomics 101.’” TED, June 2008, www.ted.com/talks/barry_schuler_genomics_101/transcript?language=en.

Venter, Craig. “Transcript of ‘Watch Me Unveil ‘Synthetic Life’".” TED, May 2010, www.ted.com/talks/craig_venter_unveils_synthetic_life/transcript.