lizzybullaDESMA9

       Last Sunday, I visited the Getty Museum in LA. The first thing that I noticed was the architecture and general space of the building. It reminded me of our week 1 lecture, where professor Vesna stated that architecture can often tell us who funded the construction of museums at the time: churches or corporations (Two Cultures Lecture Part III, Vesna 2012). The Getty's architecture seemed industrial; its walls were made of aluminum and some sort of natural rock. The building was patterned with blocks and squares throughout. Aside from this industrial exterior, there were also aspects of nature intertwined into its construction: Gardens (which were closed off to us) and a lookout point over the green hills of LA.  Aside from this industrial exterior, there were also aspects of nature intertwined into its construction: Gardens (which were closed off to us) and a lookout point over the green hills of LA. After doing more research, I found that The Getty was e...

  This week’s lectures explained the connection between art, technology, and medicine. As someone going into healthcare, I found this week’s material to be especially interesting. In Lecture 1, Professor Vesna talked about the inherent art behind the study of anatomy. She cited multiple texts like Gray’s Anatomy and Body Worlds to show how there were very different ways of conveying anatomy through art (DESMA9 Week 4 Lecture Part 1, 2024). Many students now use anatomy coloring books to supplement their learning, showing how art is inherently connected to medicine.  https://www.apologia.com/shop/kaplan-anatomy-coloring-book/ Professor Vesna also talked about the history of plastic surgery in the East, and how it is an art produced through medicine (DESMA9 Week 4 Lecture Part 3, 2024). According to one article, what makes a difference between plastic surgeons is their “vision of the body…taking into account all the curves and maximizing aesthetic results…based on skeletal anato...

This week, we were introduced to the history of robotics and how it can intertwine with art in many ways (producing both good, and bad results). Something that I was particularly interested in this week was the idea of mechanization. In our lecture this week, Professor Vesna discussed the history of Ford and the assembly line, a classic example of early mechanization (Vesna, 2012). By developing this system for workers, he was able to produce cars on a great magnitude of scale (but also introduced the idea of machine/automated-based work, as people were doing the same type of work every day). This also brought higher pay and shorter hours for workers, despite the repetitive work (Cwiek, 2014). https://www.quora.com/Did-Henry-Ford-use-an-assembly-line-in-1908-but-someone-before-1901 Walter Benjamin argues that this mechanization diminishes the “aura” or uniqueness of art and creation because it is reproducible (Benjamin, 1936). However he also argues that this gives society more opportu...

This week’s material was intriguing to me. I never realized how much math is intertwined into the way we practice art. It was interesting to learn how mathematical ideas like fractals, vanishing point, and proportions can be found in legendary works of art.  Many iconic art pieces and architecture followed the rule of proportions. The Mona Lisa was drawn according to the ratio of 1:0.618, which is the Golden Ratio (MathCentral.ca). This Is considered to be “aesthetically pleasing” in art as it is commonly found in nature and in the human body. Similarly, the Pyramids of Giza, the Parthenon, and the Vitruvian Man (by Leonardo Da Vinci) all contain elements of the Golden Ratio. The Golden Ratio and how to use it in graphic design: https://99designs.com/blog/tips/the-golden-ratio/ We also learned about fractals and how they intertwine between math, art, and nature. Fractals are a mathematical shape that are infinitely complex; they are a pattern that repeats over and over again, small...

North Vs. South Campus This week, I realized just how much UCLA’s campus embodies the idea of “Two Cultures”. The campus is divided into North campus and South campus where social science/humanities and STEM majors have most of their classes, respectively (Abraham, 2023). This week on my walk through the campus, I took note of the different architectures throughout campus. I noticed that North and Central campus had more old-style looking buildings with church-esque features, like Royce Hall. But, South campus had modern-looking buildings, like Boyer Hall. As mentioned in Part III of the Two Cultures Lecture (1:20-2:20), these differences can be representative of ‘who’ was giving money to universities for construction of the buildings — churches or corporations.  Royce Hall Boyer Hall Similarly, another thing that was mentioned this week (Two Cultures Lecture Part II) is the idea of stereotypes between mad scientists and mad artists, which I think is something that is somewhat stil...