Sunday, April 24, 2016

Week 4 | Medicine+Technology+Art


      If someone says, there is a relationship between art and medicine, many people probably feel strange. At first glance, it seems that there is nothing in common between art and medicine. However, through this weeks lecture and resources, I could develop different perspectives; now I think that it is not appropriate to consider medicine as just a part of science because medicine is the discipline where understanding patients and their cultures is inevitable; that is, in medicine health care providers always take medical histories including social and family histories and then diagnose their diseases not only based on objective measures but also subjective measures considering their cultures; Hippocrates, ancient Greek physician, even tasted patients urine, smelled the feces, and took social histories of patients. Considering these, it looks more reasonable to think medicine as a discipline which has similarities with art; in art, when we see art works, we not only assess art works based on objective paintings but also assess art works considering thoughts behind art works. 

Hippocrates analyzed not only factors directly related to human bodies but also weather, geography, races, cultures, and even laws and customs.


Leonardo da Vinci said “The painter should not ignore the anatomy”
(Anatomical drawings by Leonardo da Vinci)
      Long time ago when medical knowledge was limited, people who took the role of treating sick people were Shamans, delivering their medical knowledge through murals; during ancient times, there was no strict boundaries between art, religion, and medicine. It is well known that Leonardo Da Vinci, a leading artist during the Renaissance, dissected  cadaver and left anatomical drawings of human body; he also said that the reason why he studied human bodies was to paint and carve human bodies better. Probably because he knew and understood human bodies well, his paintings and carvings look real and many people feel that his works look like real human beings even. That is, there is a strong relationship between art and medicine. 






Virtual patient simulations are possible by iPad app(Medical Avatar)
      Nowadays, through tremendous advances in technology, there have been many applications which combine both art, technology, and medicine; for example, Medical Avatar is one of those applications where it records not only the past and present status of the patient but also predict future status of the patient based on the data it has; in addition, it can also produce 3-dimensional view of the patient, giving us more accurate analysis of the patient’s conditions. Lastly, one of the most remembered things among this week’s lecture and resources was the story mentioned by Virgil Wong, who is the cofounder and CEO of Avatar during his TED talk; when he told his mom when she became ill, regretting the fact that he did not listen to his parents, who asked him to be a doctor, his mom was so proud of him and then told him, “Medicine helps us live longer lives, but art is about why we live.” 



REFERENCES

"Body Interact." Medical Avatar. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.
Casini, Silvia. “Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations Between Science and Arts.” n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
"Leonardo da Vinci and Dissection." Art | Crime Archive. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2016. 
Tyson, Peter. "The Hippocratic Oath Today." PBS. PBS, 27 Mar. 2001. Web. 24 Apr. 2016. 
"Virgil’s TED Talk: The Medical Avatar." Virgil Wong. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2016. 
"WHOLEDUDE – WHOLE PLANET." WHOLEDUDE WHOLE PLANET. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.


Sunday, April 17, 2016

Week 3 | Robotics + Art

In “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, Walter Benjamin says about a fundamental change of arts through the development of video and picture technologies. He refers uniqueness of the work of art as “Aura”. In the era of mechanical reproduction, aura of art has been reduced in the art works, and this decrease or loss of the aura goes far beyond the art realm. 
Mechanical reproduction of arts has destroyed “Aura”.




In the past, many art works had religious values in them. 
(A Vicious Circle)
I agree with the idea that mechanical reproduction destroys the aura, which is the uniqueness of the work of art and it rather develops the art through creating new art recipients; previously, the arts were considered too solemn and influenced only a few people; however, development in technology has made the art become more accessible to much more people, resulting in popularity of the art works. Benjamin mentions that the previous art before the era of mechanical reproduction has ritualistic value; because most of the art works during the period were under the influence of religious values. However, arts have been gradually separated from the religious values, becoming more popular since then.   


Movies have collectivism. 
Lastly, Benjamin also explores photography and movies; he mentions that whereas the visual images represented by photos show individuality, movies have quite different characteristics, that is, collectivity or collectivism. During those times, movies were used in politics, where there existed too much confusion in politics; Benjamin describes that arts have contributed to the politics through advances in technology; it seems like he believed that advances in art and accordingly art’s becoming popular could make innovations in society possible; and the movies, especially their collectivity, were one of the main contributors. Furthermore, the religious values pointed out by Benjamin still exist even now where we have so amazing advances in mechanical reproduction. 





REFERENCES



"Aura of Walter Benjamin." zum. N.p., 31 Jan 2010. Web. 17 Apr. 2016.

Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Marxists. N.p.. Web. 17 April 2016

Davis, Douglas. “The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction.” The MIT Press, 1995. Web. 17 April 2016



"Jacek Malczewski. A Vicious Circle. Late 19th Century." Art and Faith Too. N.p., 01 July 2010. Web. 17 Apr. 2016.

"The Social Experience of Going to the Movies." CriticalTwenties. N.p., 02 May 2012. Web. 17 Apr. 2016.


Sunday, April 10, 2016

Week 2 | Math + Art

Mathematical art
Mitered Fractal Tree I ("The Tree")
I have been thinking of mathematics as making a calculation and figures; that has to be solved by particular formula. However, Keith Devlin, the author of “Life by the numbers”, says what mathematics is the study that applies all aspects of our lives and exists behind all things on Earth. He also mentions that mathematics provides the way to understand and include the world in our minds. Furthermore, it can be used to share thoughts existed in our minds by pulling them out. In that respect, mathematics can be very creative activity. 


In “Flatland” by Edwin Abbott, Square who had two-dimensional thinking tried to let people in Lineland and Pointland know about the existing world with higher dimension, but he failed. It shows how our range of cognition can be narrow. It is quite challenging for us to change our rules and regulations and even think of changing them. Therefore, both new ideas and pure cognition are valuable in themselves which could be respected. 
People in Flatland's perspective of the sphere.




The newer tendencies in education: Arts in conjunction with other skills
The history of mankind has evolved by courageous people who could assert and accept new ideas, and has been delayed by people who could not get away from the past and fear. The juxtaposition of mathematics, art, and science are vital to contribute to the changing world by new ideas. We should develop different cultures with various perspectives, not limited by a singular point of view. 



REFERENCES

Abbott, Edwin. “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions.” N.p., n.d. Web. 10 April. 2016.

"Aspiring to a Higher Plane." The Public Domain Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

Devlin, Keith. “Life by the numbers”. Wiley. (1999)

Henderson, Linda Dalrymple. “The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion.” Leonardo. 17.3 (1984): 205-210. Print.

"Koos Verhoeff, Tom Verhoeff, Anton Bakker." Koos Verhoeff, Tom Verhoeff, Anton Bakker. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.


"STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math." STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Week 1 | Two Cultures


        Charles Percy Snow says that there is a cultural difference between the humanities and social sciences and natural sciences; that is, he asserts that there is a cultural gap between people in the humanities and social science fields and people in the natural science fields. He asserts that this will worsen, resulting in more gap between. He mentions that if we can not resolve this gap then this will prevent us from producing creative ideas or thoughts which need knowledge from both fields. 


First of all, I am quite surprised by the phenomenon which Charles Percy Snow points out because this phenomenon can be clearly seen in Korea where I grew up; in Korea, definitely ‘two cultures’ exist; and there is too obvious reason behind this; In Korea, from sophomore in high school, students need to decide between two fields, that is, the ‘liberal arts’ and ‘natural sciences’. Then, they will be divided by this choice; from that point, they will take different classes, using different classrooms; they barely meet each other at school. Therefore, even though students hang out during their freshmen year, they feel like they are different from sophomore year if they choose different fields. After entering colleges and later, the discrepancies between these two groups get worsen. 
Visualization of structural chemistry is evolving.…With artistry.

To resolve the gap between these cultures, integration of academic disciplines is occurring in education even though students themselves do not have enough interest in this integration. As Charles mentions, I believe that, in order to produce a creative idea which can help our world as a whole, reducing the gap between two cultures is very critical. As a chemistry major, I also believe that we are living in the new era where arts and humanistic knowledge are essential even beyond just the required level at school to be a successful scientist. Nowadays, science and technology are not just technique; and these should create technology which includes humanistic values in it; that is, technology will be for people in a global community. For this, we should not only have expertise in specific area but also understand and include the value and human into the technology. In the future, I want to contribute to the world by combining the arts, humanities and science technology all together. Through this class, I would like to learn a lot so that I can be a chemistry student who has both arts knowledge and science. 
Approach to culture should be comprehensive. 


REFERENCES
Approach to culture should be comprehensiveHangyeorye, n.d. Web. 3 April. 2016
Choi, Sungwoo. "The third culture and science technology." 2004. Print.
Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York: Cambridge UP,1961. Print.
Vesna, Victoria. "Toward a Third Culture: Being In Between." Leonardo. 34 (2001): 121-125. Print.
Visualization of structural chemistry is evolving.…With artistry”. Hangyeorye, n.d. Web. 3 April. 2016