YulianaGarcia(desma-9)

 Hello, bruins Link:https://elements.envato.com/earth-and-sun-from-space-orbit-DRSG9AQ We began this week's class material with a compelling guest speaker who, I believe, set the tone for the remainder of the week. This week's topic is space and art, which I would never have combined in a real-world application. The guest speaker who began this week laid a solid framework for how these two cultures interact. I found her work to be incredibly interesting and necessary; it puts into perspective Vesna's statement that we must take care of our planet as we begin exploring biomes outside of planet Earth. Much of the guest speaker's work is devoted to recreating biomes that would be used if the earth ceased to be a habitual location for humans to exist. This made me think about how much effort is put into ensuring that the human population has other options for living, while the guest speaker researched which animals may exist in these man-created biomes. Link: https://www.am...

 Hello Bruins,       When we were first introduced to this week's concept, beginning with our guest lecture, I was intrigued by the use of nanoparticle material and technology. I had never given much attention to the field of nanotechnology because I had no previous experience and was never taught about it in detail in any of my other classes at UCLA. However, as Vesna illustrated in her introduction video about nanotech and art, changing the framework and returning to the way the two cultures fit in the grand scheme, I found this week's concept particularly fascinating to see how nanotech and nanoparticles can be used in the development of art and also in our daily lives. link to pic: https://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/articles/16883-nanotechnology      When Dr. Gimzewski, a UCLA professor, said that we have nanoparticles in our daily lives, it made me think of how all I wear and consume is an example of modern types of nanotech and art. The...

 Hello bruins In her introduction to this week's lecture, Vesna brought up the topic of our consciousness and how culture influences it. This statement got me thinking, particularly when she mentioned us being machined’ slaves. This reminded me of a reading I had in one of my political classes on Henry David Thoreau, in which he warns society against joining this "information community," as Vesna describes, in which the ordinary citizen becomes dominated and enslaved to the computers we use in our everyday lives. Thoreau believed that society was becoming increasingly submissive to the same society that limits and restricts their rights, and that individualism "man becomes a machine" merely a result of social needs, further away from living intentionally. This refers to our consciousness as defined in the lecture, as well as our understanding of what life is and what our own beliefs are. cite: my work from past classes  In reference to Aristotle and his idea of ...

 HELLO BRUINS, This week, I went to Henry's watch party for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," a title that struck me as ironic after watching the film, considering that the lives of the characters depicted in the film were anything but sunny. The film was chaotic and very stimulating; it follows Joe, the protagonist, as he attempts to delete the memory of his significant other because it causes him too much pain to hold her in his mind. I assume this stimulus was done on purpose to connect the viewer with the main character's nuanced thoughts as he goes through this memory wipe-out. This also reminded me of Diane Gromala's TED talk, in which she used her pain to generate VR feedback; in the film, they use the pain of patients' memories to create a machine that will help them relieve themselves and give them a fresh start. (selfie from the event)  When debating the ethics of using living things to test medical and artistic procedures. I remembered a scen...

HELLO BRUINS,    As Ruth West raises questions for us to consider on how biotechnology and art affect our daily lives and where the two domains fit in the world, I believe it is critical to shaping your own  understanding of it and break down the stigmas associated with the worlds of art and biology.                                             link;  https://we-make-money-not-art.com/category/biotech-art/ As a humanities major, I believe that few courses have such a viewpoint that incorporates and emphasizes the ways in which art impacts the biotech industry and vice versa the ways in which research can be seen in the world of art. However, as Vesna points out in her introduction clip, whether we realize it or not, artists are working in the laboratory, merging their two worlds. Joe Davis, a pioneer who invented the concepts art and biot...