daniellerDESMA9

Image 1: Plastic Body (Medicine Pt 3) I grew up surrounded by the medical world, being that my mother is an Emergency Room physician. I currently work in the Emergency Department and I am exposed to modern medical technologies all the time, such as X-rays and CT scans. In Vesna's third lecture, I was fascinated to learn plastic surgery was not a modern phenomenon. "Physicians in ancient India were utilizing skin grafts for reconstructive work as early at 800 B.C."  Also, plastic does not necessarily mean artificial, rather it means to give something form, derived from the Greek word  Plasticos.  Image 2: Pregnant Woman - Body World Exhibit In my experience in art galleries, the artist's meaning is often up to your own interpretation and imagination.  I'm no expert in the art world, just as many are not experts in the medical world.  "The appeal of brain imaging as a technique of self-portrait is powerful for an audience outside the medical field,...

Image 1: Johannes Gutenberg, Printing Press.  The Industrial revolution made room for large jump mechanization and mass production.  In lecture 1, Vesna mentions that "the printing press was the beginning of the assembly line production." The invention of the printing press, marks the beginning of assembly line manufacturing.  When I first learned about assembly line manufacturing, I always viewed the assembly in a positive light and that it was an incredible step forward, which it was. Image 2: Henry Ford Model-T Assembly Line However, after reading The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, by Walter Benjamin, it gave me insight to the negative aspects of assembly line manufacturing. "Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be. This unique existence of the work of art determined the history to which it was subject throughout...

Image 1: Bare Your Soul by Linda Weintraub  I attended Linda Weintraub's, Welcome to My Woods , workshop on Wednesday, April 19th, and I throughly enjoyed her perspective on the way we live our lives in our modern world.  Linda's interest is in neo-materialism, which is the study of relationships between populations and environments. (Materialism). One of the first questions Linda asked me was "How often in your life do you spend walking on hard, flat surfaces?" I had never thought about this before.  It turns out I do this the majority of each and every day.  I thought to myself, I rarely spend time barefoot, and rarely spend time on the grass, beach, or in nature for that matter.  "There are reflex points to every part of your body in your feet.  Every little bump and rock in the road helps to stimulate all these little reflex points.  If it hurts at first - especially in specific areas, this means your feet need the stimulation they're gett...

Leonardo da Vinci: the Vitruvian Man Before this week, I had never really considered the mathematical aspect in the arts, at lease not to the depth of the golden ratio. That being said, I had never thought of how the two subjects could not only influence one another, but coexist. The infamous Vitruvian Man (see left) , by Leonardo da Vince circa 1490. It reveals the ideal human proportions through the use of geometry.  It truly captures the essence of mathematical influence in art and science. In the article written by Sanghi he explains, "the Vitruvian Man image exemplifies the blend of art and science during the Renaissance and provides the perfect example of Leonardo's keen interest in proportion" Image 2: Vanishing point: Masolino’s ‘St. Peter Healing a Cripple and the Raising of Tabitha’ (1425). Mathematics has certainly enhanced visual perspective in art.  In Vesna's lecture, she introduced Al-Haytham, a medieval muslim scholar who specia...

As a Psychology student, I have studied within the realms of both science and art. I have always believed that these “two cultures” should overlap through collaboration despite immediate differences. C.P Snow pioneered the notion of "two cultures"one consisting of literary intellectuals and the other consisting of scientists.  I was able to resonate with Snow's ideas through my experiences and also share the fear of crystallizing the divide. Image 1: UCLA South Campus major (left)North Campus major (right). At UCLA, there is a large difference in the gap of collaboration between those of scientific disciplines versus those of art and humanities disciplines compared to the outside world. UCLA’s campus is physically divided into North Campus, consisting of arts and humanities majors, and South Campus, consisting of science and technology majors. This physical divide leads to an educational and social divide amongst students. Science majors mostly collaborate with f...