Extra Credit Event

On Decemer 5th, I went to the CNSI building again for the Art and Science Gallery. It reminded me of the first event I visited which was the "Cardiac Dance: The Spirals of Life." The title for this gallery was called "What Comes to Mind: Memory Traces/Engrams from The Anatomy Lesson." It was ran by Joyce Cutler-Shaw. When I went into the room, the size of the room was less bigger than I thought. Nevertheless, I soon focused on Joyce's work which she combined two different photos together.

The interesting fact of her works was that she did not just put any photos together, but the photos that show her memory and personal life story in New York. She had been working on the human cycle (birth to death) and also produced art works. Some had skeleton and brain in her photos and the screen what projector was shooting on the wall.

Her representation of history and memory including the life and death cycle of human helped me review what I learned in Desma class. It was the lecture of neuroscience and art. I posted a photo of human brain with a butterfly on the brain as you can see underneath this paragraph. It was the work by Suzanne Anker who worked with Giovanni Frazzetto and began their amazing "neuroculture project." On the fMRI scans, they put butterfly and it shows how a butterfly has an identical print on a brain. They gave a great opportunity on combining two different and separated topics together.

I searched her name and found her other works like public projects, early works, alphabet of bones and other unique visual art works. I think she is a great artist who could think of unusual and unique style of work that nobody did not touch. At first, her works were serious and scary, I found a really deep meaning because she has found another way, the way that no one tried as I mentioned. It is a true talent for her and I enjoyed the time spending inside of the small gallery room of recalling my memory. I wondered how I would try putting my earlier photos together and what photos I would choose if I was Joyce.

Event 3 at Hammer museum

My friends and I used to make some jokes about Hammer museum that there would be so many different kinds of hammers displayed because of its name. However, after I visited this museum, Hammer museum became my favorite. Even though taking photos is not allowed here, I still enjoyed spending time at the museum with the free admission. The first reason why it became my favorite place is it was not boring on November 14th.

(The statue I found in front of the exhibition.

 If you look closely the statue is sticking out its tongue with popped eyes. )

The paintings I saw remind me of the materials I learned from the lecture videos and readings. We learned about robotics+art and space+art. What remained in my head is the pictures of space craft lighted with electricity. It was interesting how artists add lights and used electricity to their pictures. Most of the pictures displayed in the general museum are made of paints and other art supplies. The actual pictures in this museum was shining. I was sad I could not take a photo of it, but it's okay.

               

What captured my eyes was the art work by the British artist Mark Leckey. This exhibition was his first solo presentation in US. His presentation called "On Pleasure Bent" showed a picture of a man who dressed as a woman. He was wearing a dotted hat with a dotted dress (it is the photo underneath this paragraph). He tried to visualize his memory and his personal experience. His idea originated from the images of memory and personal pleasure, desires, and thoughts. It gives a great example on how culture shapes technology from past to present.

Following photos are the ones that made may day at Hammer museum.

by Mark Leckey

<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/15/mark-leckey_n_3750245.html>

(The photo contains the big, red banner of "End White Supremacy")

(Hammer museum had a table tennis set up. The dark green table and the red racket matched with the colorful curtains at the back. It was my favorite part of the museum.)

The last four photos were taken in front of the big, colorful, and unique wall inside the building. It looks like some kind of ancient building. It reminds me of a pyramid. It was an honor to explore such famous and beautiful art works. I did not expect a lot, but I gained knowledge about art works and I actually lost track of time looking around. Now, every time I pass Wilshire blvd, I recommend my friends to go visit the Hammer museum.

Event 2 at Fowler museum

On November 14th, I visited Fowler museum at UCLA, one of our UCLA's source of proud. At this time, Fowler had a program called "Fowler at Fifty" which was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the museum. They opened eight exhibitions and had thousands of art work collections.

 My favorite unit was where I could see the Maori section. I was in New Zealand when I was ten and had amazing experience with Maori traditions and its culture. Maori is the native group in NZ. I was glad to see so many familiar collections, for example, statues, cloaks, little dolls, accessories, and other ethnological collections.

(Maori art collections)

On the other hand, I saw Wunderkammer. It had eccentric and exotic collection which were unfamiliar  and new to me. It is divided into big three categories, naturalia (flora and fauna), artificialia (man-made objects), and mirabilia (about wondrous nature). These materials were popular to merchants around 16th century. Wunderkammer is made for the dedication to the origin of America. There were symbols and dolls made of wood to represent their spiritual contribution and ancient culture at that significant era. 

(The Indigenous America displayed in Wunderkammer section)

The reason why I was so impressed with these unfamiliar creations is because they represent and show how the old days or the past was like. We can imagine how America was like long time ago and how Native people wear their clothes, what they believed in, what they eat, and so on.

(These photos show how a woman and a man wore and decorate themselves)

Last of all, I was so happy that we are privileged to explore such events at our school. I have been busy attending classes without enjoying spending time to learn knowledge and moreover to get impressions on how people describe and depict their culture through the art. I hope more people visit Fowler museum to take a rest with precious art works and art pieces.

The end

Space + Art

I cannot believe it's already the last lecture and the last assignment. For this week, professor Vesna talked about the space and the art. "Powers of Ten" video shows how much we and the earth are tiny from the space. I knew the universe is so huge, but I realized again that the solar system or the milky way galaxy we know is just a little part of the while universe. The camera zooms out and zooms in by exploring the skin cells and galaxy with using the powers of ten. This video was a good start to introduce how the universe is so far away from us and about its amazingly unending distance.

We are familiar to the solar system and its planets' name through the science class, medias, and so on. Specifically, these planets got the name from the myth characters, for example, Venus, the second planet from the Sun is named after the Roman goddess of beauty and love. This fact tells how humans connect their ideas and thoughts to their discoveries on space.


I would like to focus on the part where human challenge their limit. One example is shown from the video called "The sputnik moment". It talks about how every American had a very normal life fifty years ago. The scientist and engineers tried something very new which was to shoot the space craft to the sky. the tension between soviet union and america was built regarding the issue of satellite. They rebuilt, put more money, and required better and more education to satisfy their job. Through this video we can tell how people drew attention of great accomplishment of sending the satellite to the space and brought competition between countries. The space became the way how people compete and show who was the better nation. It was the magical issue that nobody could not own. It is a great example how human challenges their limit.
The picture on the right is the first spacecraft made by Soviet. <http://thisdayintechhistory.com/04/03/first-spacecraft-to-orbit-moon/>

Moreover, human were fascinated by the gravity. Gravity is something that holds every substance in Earth. Kathleen Forde wrote an article called "Dancing on the ceiling: art a& zero gravity". With the idea of Italo Calvino, artists represented the works to explore the weightless status on Earth which is impossible in reality. I was interested by their idea of performing zero gravity or similar to it. In reality, it is not possible for us to live without thee gravity. However, the idea represented by the artists tried to define this uncontrollable force that they can never control. I would like to mention about Kulbi who spent time floating in the tank Xu Zhen who held her position upright in the air to look like the person who is in the actual space. These brilliant ideas showed how humans really do appreciate the chance to explore the unexplored space and explain through art.

 
Example of what Xu Zhen performed regarding gravity. <http://zerogravity.empac.rpi.edu/zhen/>




Citations
“Dancing on the Ceiling: Art & Zero Gravity at EMPAC.” Art & Education. N.p.. Web. 30 Nov 2012. <http://www.artandeducation.net/announcement/dancing-on-the-ceiling-art-zero-gravity-at-empac/>.

"Powers of Ten (1977)". Web. 26 Aug 2010. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0>.

"Powers of Ten" Web. 2010. <http://powersof10.com/>.

"8 Space Intro" Web. 29 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dPAmpBiVHY>

"8 Space Part 1" Web. 29 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZIqTR332l8>

"8 Space Part 2" Web. 29 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLZMDpoP-u0>