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Event Blog 3: Hox Zodiac

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Today, I attended the Hox-Zodiac honoring the horse where multiple different speakers shared their experiences with the horse and the zodiac. The Hox Zodiac “allows the human-auidence to experience the shared history and potential of genetic diversity among animals” (Vesna and Ramakrishnan). The first speakers shared stories of their experiences as younger children and teenagers with horses, both feeling a special to the horse. The third speaker dove more into the “honoring the horse” through food. She shared how the roles of animals in our lives is huge taking parts in stories and our nutrition. I now feel a greater appreciation for the meat that I eat and after this presentation today want to start practicing more gratitude for the animals I eat.  After going to the event, I checked my own hox-zodiac on their website to see if anything would resonate with me. As a Goat, my element is the Earth and my color is brown. Neither of these strongly stood to me, but I found seasons and d...
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Week 9: Space and Art

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                    T his week’s lectures focused on the exploration of space and the impact that it had on art. Watching this week’s lectures made me so small and insignificant when compared to the vastness of space. In the Pale Blue Dot, Carl Sagan says when talking about the Earth, “every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there on the mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam”(Sagan). The exploration of space began during the Cold War with the “space race” between the United States and the USSR. Both countries advanced in both math and sciences in order to compete with one another.            While watching lectures, it was interesting for me to also see the impact space has had on art and the media. For example, in television and movies, there are hundreds of space movies like Star Wars and Interstellar that have had a profound impact on humans. These movies have brought space...
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Week 7: Neuroscience & Art

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             As a psychology major, this week’s topic of neuroscience and art was particularly interesting as the lectures and videos covering topics discussed in my psychology classes. In my psychology class last quarter, we learned about the different animals and organisms that humans share genes with. We share about 98% of our genes with chimpanzees, and about 60% with bananas, and during this week’s lecture, we learned that humans share 70% of our genes with sea sponges.            A researcher at University of California, Santa Barbara found that sea sponges have synapses, a very important part of the nervous system. Synapses are the cross section between nerve cells that allow these cells to pass information to eachother (Yong). Though sea sponges are immoble and almost lifeless, they can help neuroscientists understand the nervous system within humans and other organisms and its origins.    ...
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Event Blog 2: Jess Irish

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         Think of a bag of chips. You open up the bag, eat the chips and throw it away, but where is this away? “This Moral Plastik”, a film created by Jess Irish, talks about the global plastic problem and how a person never throws something “away” it just goes elsewhere. The plastic we “throw away” accumulates overtime into massive piles and gets into oceans and other parts of nature.The plastics created today will outlive all of us.            I feel like it’s easy to remove oneself from these global issues living in such a progressive area like Los Angeles. We are all guilty of it, myself included, I never think about these issues living in the bubble of UCLA, where the administration and student body are environmentally conscious. Today, while watching “This Moral Plastik”, I felt drawn back into the global plastic problem. This is a different perspective on plastics I have not seen before.       ...
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Week 6: Biotech/Bio

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                         Before this week, I had never heard of or been taught about different biotechnologies. In the Lecture, we learned that Biotech can be a controversial topic in today’s society with GMOs, animal testing, and hybrids having many pros and cons to each side. I found Stelarc’s “third ear” most interesting as he used the third ear as a performance of body jewelry. He got ear cartilage surgically placed under the skin on his forearm. Stelarc’s goal is to put a microphone into the third ear, so it will be fully a functional organ with stem cells partly growing in the ear. With this Stelarc can “listen into what’s happening in other parts of the world”(Fernandez).  Life is a valid expressive medium because, like Stelarc, humans have the free will to do almost anything which is almost artistic. Though I do not know if I think putting a “third ear” in the arm of a human being is necessary, there...
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Event Blog: Atmosphere of Sound

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Today, I attended an the “Atmoshphere of Sound” event put on by Patricia Cadavid and Professor Vesna. I did not really know or understand what I was signing up for, but I came away with a more enriched knowledge of how the Andean peoples used different information processing devices. The Khipu is an Andean information processing device that was used before the Spanish colonizers banished them. This was one of the first textile technologies and these devices were made from fibers, hair, and cotton and have such a rich history behind them. These devices were used to record government meetings and rituals.   Our wonderful speaker today Patricia Cadavid, a Columbian artist, has brought a modern day spin on the Khpi. She has created an electric khipu which plays sounds. By tugging and tying of knots in a particular fashion, sounds frequencies can be heard. Cadavid’s work comes from a deep passion in understanding “the relationships and effects of colonitality in ...
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Week 4: MedScience & Art

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Artists, past and present, have always been interested in and have used the human body as a muse. Beginning with dissections, artists have been helping scientists for centuries by drawing diagrams and detailed sketches of the human body. In the lecture, Professor Vesna speaks about Gray’s Anatomy, a book of human anatomy for surgical procedures. This book was originally intended for scientists and doctors but has ended up in almost every artist’s arsenal who uses the human body as their inspiration (Vesna).  In this week’s lectures, I found the section on plastic surgery most interesting and influential. I have a plastic surgeon in my extended family and have seen some of the clients of my family member usually rich women who want to get botox but learning the origins of this job I realize it is so much more than my initial perspective. The use of plastic does not mean fake but it actually derives from a word meaning mold and originally was used to reconstruct t...
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