This was the third event I attended, and I'm happy I went to the Discovery Cube and LACMA before it. The Discovery Cube was simple excitement, LACMA was more mature in its integration of art and science, and Kathy High's exhibit was all this plus a profound message. Going into this exhibition, I didn't really know anything about Kathy High except what we covered in class, and I had no idea what Chrome's disease was. Walking in and immediately seeing a representation of a method to preserve feces, I was a little hesitant about how much I would enjoy the exhibition.
Fecal matter preserved in honey
But, after spending some time learning about Crohn's disease, fecal transplants, the art in the room, and Kathy's mission, I thought it was a really cool and well presented exhibit.
Photo with one of her photos. Clearer one below
There were seemingly contradictory pieces, beautiful art and feces, the vibrancy and life of Kathy's pictures and the seriousness and sorrow of having an affliction such as Crohn's disease. But everything tied together so well. Kathy's bravery in asking David Bowie for his feces for a fecal transplant is the same bravery that allows her to model in recreations of his album covers. The positivity represented in those photographs related to the information present about Crohn's disease- about moving forward and making positive discoveries and developments, not lamenting her situation or having a pity party.
Image as part of a series to help raise awareness for Crohn's disease
We learned about a lot of art that creates discussion or explores controversial subjects (Alba and Orlan's work are examples) and it was really cool to see such an exhibit. I also thought it was a great way to promote awareness about Crohn's disease. The exhibition is closed, but I would strongly encourage people to check out some photos of her art and read a bit about her experience with Crohn's.
Sources:
High, Kathy. "Waste Matters: You Are My Future | UCLA Art | Sci Center Lab." UCLA Art Sci. UCLA Art Sci. Web. 7 June 2015.
I visited LACMA shortly after visiting the Discovery Cube, and I felt like I saw a kind of grown-up version of it, but more artsy. Two exhibitions I thought were cool were Breathing Light by James Turrell and Metropolis II by Chris Burden. To experience Breathing Light, you enter a room of sorts with white curved walls, ceiling, and floor. Different shades of light are filtered into the room, and it disrupts your depth perception, which was really funky.
This isn't actually the one from LACMA, but an almost identical exhibition by Turrell. I chose it because I think it shows a bit on how it affects depth perception. The article that goes with it is really interesting and definitely worth a read if you're interested in this exhibit.
Metropolis II is a huge kinematic racetrack, with dozens of toy race cars continually zooming to the end of the track and being lifted back to the beginning.
Video about Metropolis II
Me and some of my sorority sisters at Metropolis II
To me, these exhibits represented situations where art and science are inseparable. Breathing Light related to visual presentation and perspective, more specific how technology allows us to create spectacular visual effects in film. One example is in filming The Lord of the Rings trilogy, where they used multiple cameras and scaling sets to make the proportions of the actors correct. This application of technology to enhance visual presentation is similar to the vanishing point and golden ratio we learned about week 2. Metropolis II made me think of architecture, where the primary focus is of course creating a safe building, but almost as important is the building's aesthetic. Architecture is an interesting type of art in that it is created to serve a practical purpose, but can hold artistic value equivalent to that of a painting, sculpture, symphony, more 'traditional' forms of art. Other similar examples are cars, furniture, computer hardware. LACMA definitely wasn't what I was expecting, and was really engaging and informative. There are many places where art and science converge, and I think this class really showed me how art doesn't have to fall solely in the realm of humanities, but can be just as scientific as engineering or medicine.
Sources:
Burden, Chris. "Metropolis II at LACMA." YouTube. Debitification, 29 Jan. 2012. Web. 7 June 2015.
Gayford, Martin. "Enlightened Spaces." MIT Technology Review. MIT Technology Review, 19 Apr. 2014. Web. 7 June 2015.
The first event I went to was Bubblefest at the Discovery Cube OC. I wasn't too wow-ed bu the Bubblefest itself, the bubbles were kind of fun(bubbles are always fun), but overall it seemed just overwhelmingly flashy and showy with underwhelming content. Although, I could just be a little disappointed because I didn't know Bubblefest was a show (reminded me of fireworks), not an interactive room full of bubbles and stuff to make bubbles and play with bubbles. I found wandering around the Cube to be more entertaining.
Me and my friends arrived early, so we had a bit of time to wander around and look at the exhibits.
Being one of the oldest people there not accompanying a young child, it was interesting to look at what exhibits my friends and I were attracted to versus what attracted the younger children, the target audience of the Cube. Nick, Paige, and I were drawn to all the 'doing' exhibits- where you had the ability to manipulate a force and observe the result. These would be contrasted with the more visual exhibits- such as a 'grocery store' teaching about eco-friendly shopping, where most of the information is presented in video clips. This was a trend I noticed with younger children too, with barely anyone near the oceanic area where most of the information was on murals or signs, but the Earthquake simulator, seismograph, wind tunnel, and cloud ring almost always crowded.
Create standing waves- this was kind of funny to see since there's a physics 4AL lab analyzing these, which I did spring 2014.
Seismograph- this was fun, we had competitions with kids to see who could make the biggest spike by jumping
Seeing the amazement and joy of the children in such a simple context as creating different sized standing waves with a spinning string made me think of another connection between art and science- the pleasure of finding things out, of learning and accomplishment. There are many different types of joy- vegging out with Netflix, helping someone, receiving a present- but, at least for me, the joy I get from finishing a CS project feels almost the same as mastering a piano piece or playing a great game of tennis. This course has shown me how art and science influence each other, but I still thought of them as completely separate entities, not really comparable. But the processes, making scientific discoveries or completing an art exhibition or collection, these are similar, and give us another means of bridging the gap between art and science. By sharing what amazes and excites us about our own favorite subjects, maybe we can spread our knowledge, creating a more knowledgeable and cohesive society. The Discovery Cube is targeted towards younger children, but it was very fun to embrace my inner child, and run around playing with all the exhibitions. I would definitely recommend it, not so much as a learning experience, but just a way to enjoy science and have fun.
Sources:
"Spinning Wire and Strobe at California Discovery Science Center Cube." YouTube. Iddyodyssey's Channel, 7 Sept. 2014. Web. 7 June 2015.
"Seismograph: Measure Your Own Tremors!" Discovery Cube OC RSS2. Discovery Cube OC RSS2. Web. 7 June 2015.
