Midterm Project Link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0rLribFznyQOUxiMmVIRlVrWGM/view?usp=sharing

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 6: BioTech + Art

Image
This week’s topic, biotechnology and art, involves more recent and controversial art, as living organisms are used as an artistic medium.  I found one of the more fascinating works of art discussed this week to be that of Stelarc, the man with a “third ear” implanted into his arm.  While the implanted ear was made of material commonly used in plastic surgery, his own tissue has morphed with the ear so that it is now a fully living part of his body (McCafferty).  In the future, Stelarc wishes to have a small microphone inserted into his “third ear” so that the entire world can listen in, with this worldwide connection being the artistic value that Stelarc sees in his implanted “masterpiece” (DailyMail.co.uk). Stelarc's Third Ear The more controversial side of BioArt comes in the genetic modification of living species, such as Kathy High’s work with transgenic mice.  High was able to genetically modify certain mice by including foreign genetic material and w...
Read more

Week 1: Two Cultures

Image
This week’s reading focused on C.P. Snow’s The Two Cultures and Scientific Revolution , in which Snow defines two different types of people based on his own real-world observations—scientists and literary intellectuals/artists (Snow, 1961).  His work goes into detail describing how these two groups have no interdependence and have trouble interacting with members of the opposing group, as he recalls specific interactions with individuals of the two groups, even citing some of these individuals’ specific names.  Victoria Vesna’s article comes from a perspective of research and review of Snow’s writing, providing background and summarizing some of Snow’s key points.  She states that “the curricula of schools and universities are the source of this problem” and that “the first reported use of the (term) scientist…was proposed as an analogy to the term artist” (Vesna, 2001).     I do see strong evidence of the two cultures here at UCLA, particularly wit...
Read more

Event 2

Image
Last week I was able to attend the keynote address for the Chemical Entanglements: Gender and Exposure Conference.  The keynote speaker was Florence Williams, a writer and editor of various newspapers, and her presentation focused on the topic “The Burden of Breasts: Gender, Chemical Exposures, and Changing Bodies”. While there were some artistic elements to her address, it largely centered on the chemical effects (which lead to medical issues) that many everyday products have on the human body, specifically women’s breasts.  After hearing of studies into the alarmingly high amounts of PBDEs, compounds found in flame retardants, found in breast feeding moms in Europe, Ms. Williams decided to send in her own breast milk sample to a European lab to see how her levels compared to those of European moms.  What she, and other Americans found out, was that levels of PBDE found in the breast milk of breastfeeding American moms was ten times higher than that of the average...
Read more