Week 4 I Medicine, Technology, and Art

One of the facts that interested me the most in this week’s unit of technology, medicine, and art came during part two of Dr. Vesna’s lectures.  As an aspiring physician, I thought that science, technology, and medicine had been intertwined for a long time so you can imagine my surprise when she mentioned that the close intermingling of these disciplines began relatively recently in the 20^th century (Vesna).  My belief actually stems from the debate raging today that say today’s doctors are too dependent on technology and that it is leading to several adverse effects on medicine.

An overlay of some of the images that can be provided with today's medical technology

This week I decided to look into this debate over the role of technology in the medical field.  One article in the BMJ discusses the growing cost of receiving health care and attributes it to the availability of advanced but expensive medical technology that health care providers are relying on too heavily (Hoffman 1).  Additionally, other opponents state that this heavy reliance on technology is causing doctors to lose diagnosis skills as they depend on machines to be their crutch (Aw).

An example of an application that makes diagnoses for the doctor

Despite these criticisms of technology in medicine, we cannot ignore the fact that technological advancement is revolutionizing health care.  For example, we are beginning to look into the development of personalized medicine which looks at a patient’s genetics and biomarkers in order to determine what treatment would work best for them as an individual (Personalized Medicine).  If we were to cut back on technological advancement in medicine, we could be losing out on important developments such as this one.  Perhaps a better answer is to reevaluate when the technologies we have available are necessary, both as patients who tend to demand the most advance treatment available and as physicians (Hobson).

Personalized medicine will allow for better pre-screening and pre-categorization of patients

Works Cited

Aw James. "Digitally Numb: Doctors Are Losing Hands-on Diagnosis Skills by Relying Too Much on Technology." National Post. National Post, 10 June 2014. Web. 25 Apr. 2015.

Hobson, Katherine. "Cost of Medicine: Are High-Tech Medical Devices and Treatments Always Worth It?" US News. U.S.News & World Report, 10 July 2009. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. Hofman, Bjorn M. "Too Much Technology." The British Medical Journal 350 (2015): n. pag. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h705>. "Personalized Medicine." U.S. Food and Drug Administration. US FDA, 30 Jan. 2015. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. Vesna, Victoria. "Medicine Pt2." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=59&v=psjnQarHOqQ>.

Week 3 I Robots and Art; Industrialization

The industrial revolution and its effects on the world have been a topic of study in several history classes I have taken previously.  I have never studied this period in the context of its influence on art however, so for this week, I decided to focus on the industrialism aspect of the lesson in order to broaden my knowledge on a topic I already have some familiarity with.

When I initially thought of the industrial revolution, I saw it as counter to creativity and art.  The idea that materials be mass-produced and come out identical to one another seems antagonistic to the individualism normally associated to art in my mind.  In addition, industrialism even led to the decline of artisan tradition, in which skilled craftsmen used to produce materials as an art form (Kristofferson 2).

Artisans at Work

As pointed out my Dr. Vesna however, the industrialization of society gave rise to new art forms and artistic movements despite leading to the end of others.  The most obvious in the context of this class is that it laid the foundation for what would eventually become automaton and robot art but there are others that are not as technologically involved (Vesna). 

One example is the Bohemian movement that arose during the industrialist era of central Europe.  Bohemian culture arose against the rising bourgeoisie in industrial France and stressed free living and artistic pursuit (Bohemianism and Counterculture).  Additionally, the period of industrialism served as an inspiration and a subject for art in different mediums such as the film Moulin Rouge or the painting Coalbrookdale by Night by Phillip James De Loutherbourg (Art and Artistic Reactions to the Industrial Revolution; Industrial Revolution Movies).

Phillip James De Loutherbourg's Coalbrookdale by Night

Moulin Rouge: A film based on the Bohemianism that arose in France during Industrialization

Ultimately these ample examples of art that arose in response to and because of industrialization demonstrate that although it led to the decline of certain art forms, others arose to take their place.  This speaks to the dynamic nature of art as it transforms with the culture producing it.

Works Cited

"Art and Artistic Reactions to the Industrial Revolution." History, Trade, and Art. Web. 18 Apr. 2015. <http://historytradeart.blogspot.com/2010/05/art-and-artistic-reactions-to.html>.

Bohemianism and Counterculture. Web. 18 Apr. 2015. <https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255-s01/boheme/welcome.html>.

"Industrial Revolution Movies." Screen Junkies. Web. 18 Apr. 2015. <http://www.screenjunkies.com/movies/genres-movies/war-movies/industrial-revolution-movies/>.

Kristofferson, Robert. Craft Capitalism: Craftworkers and Early Industrialization in Hamilton, Ontario, 1840-1872. Toronto: U of Toronto, 2007. Print.

Vesna, Victoria. "Robots." YouTube. YouTube. Web. 18 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=142&v=cRw9_v6w0ew>.

Week 2 l Math and Art

Unlike the idea of the two cultures, this week’s focus on the blending of math and art was not entirely new to me.  I was first exposed to the idea in middle school where my geometry teacher insisted that math was an art form and that he had his bachelor of arts in math to prove it.  It held an ambiguity in my mind from that point on; math was too different from the experimental method to be called a science but also did not seem similar enough to the arts to belong in that category as well.

This week’s lesson helped to clear those ambiguities by clarifying the interaction of math amongst art and science.   In regards to science, math appears to be more of a tool that can be used to validate the inferences made by experiments and develop theoretical models.While artists also use math as a tool, we learned of numerous cases where the math itself was art.

One of the most famous uses of math in science: Einstein's equation of relativity.

An early example that we learned of where math was used as a tool was Brunelleschi using geometrical principles in order to develop linear perspective during the Italian Renaissance.  Using different angles and lines, he was able to denote a vanishing point and create more realistic images from the vantage point of a viewer.  Mc Escher on the other hand was a 20^th century artist who actually used geometry as his art.

An early sketch using Brunelleschi's linear perspective.

While geometry seems to be the most applicable branch of math to use in art as it involves shapes and angles, contemporary artists like Nathan Selikoff are turning to other forms such as code to incorporate into their work.  These examples show that while often more correlated to science and technology in people’s minds, math is a tool to be used both in, and as art.

An example of art created by computer coding.

Citations

"A Funy Way of Understanding E=mc^2." September 2014.  Photograph. n.d. Web 12 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.universetoday.com/114617/a-fun-way-of-understanding-emc2/>

"Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean” YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.

Selikoff, Nathan. "Society of Stickpeople - Real-time Video Projection - Nathan Selikoff." Nathan Selikoff. N.p., 2009. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.

Sen Students and Coding. March 2013. Photograph. n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <https://opensen.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/sen-students-and-codin/>

"The Shape of Space.” The Mathematical Art of M.C. Escher. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015."

Week 1 I Two Cultures

The division of the arts and sciences has been a part of my educational experience for as long as I can remember.  As discussed in the Changing Educational Paradigms video, the subjects I study have been stratified since elementary school and the separation is even more apparent here at UCLA where the humanities and the sciences are so split up that they are taught in different regions of campus.

An illustration of division of subjects in our education system.

Because of how ingrained this idea has been throughout my life, I have pushed myself to focus more on my scientific goals as a Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics major and allow my previous passion for music to slowly dwindle into a hobby.  Never did I imagine that a bridge between the two cultures could exist; I thought that intellectuals like C.P. Snow who participated in both the humanities and science were a rare occurrence and were meant to experience those spheres separately as he describes he did early in his lecture. 

Based on my previous attitudes, you can imagine my surprise when learning about the third culture as discussed by Dr. Vesna in "Toward a Third Culture: Being In Between".  The idea of a middleman that bridges the worlds of art, science, and technology not only fascinated me, but convinced me that the interaction between these seemingly disparate groups is an important next step for intellectualism.  I believe that the collaboration between scientists and artists will lead to new ideas and result in a unique type of progress that neither could produce on their own.

Fluorescent bacteria used to create art on a petri dish.

Of course, this development will take time as it will require the scientists to become more literate in the works of the artists and vice versa, but I feel optimistic that we as a society are headed in that direction.

Citations:

Ben-Jacob, Eschel. Bacteria as Art. 2013. Photograph. n.d. Web 05Apr. 2015 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/15/bacteria-art_n_3567046.html>

Popova, Maria. Dreamers and Storytellers. 2012. Photograph. n.d. Web 05 Apr. 2015. <http://www.brainpickings.org/2012/04/25/e-o-wilson-on-art/>

"RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2015.
Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.  New York: Cambridge UP, 1959. Print.

Vesna, Victoria. "Toward a Third Culture: Being In Between." Leonardo. 34 (2001): 121-125. Print.