Medicine, Technology, and Art

In t

he Renaissance, art was strongly focused on trying to capture human anatomy accurately. Thus, “as European artists turned towards more lifelike portrayals of the human body, they needed a deeper understanding of how the structures of the body worked together” (sciencemuseum.org). That is why scientists and artists worked together during this time period (and were often one and the same).

Renaissance Anatomy Art

 X-Ray Art is a good example of an artistic medium where artists have taken advantage of a medical technology. This piece, by Nick Veasey, shows our connection to technology because both the microphone and the headphones look similar to our skeletal structure, as if they could be natural appendages to our bodies.

Nick Veasey's X-Ray Art

Silivia Casini writes that “even a single MRI image might be considered to be a portrait or self-portrait” (Casini, 89). Thus, artists have also begun to make use of MRIs to make art that expresses themselves and others. I think that this piece uses MRI technology to express angst.

MRI Art

After learning about how MRI machines are used to make art, I began to wonder how they worked. I learned that MRIs shoot electromagnetic radiation at specific frequencies to see certain types of tissue. This is how MRIs are able to see soft tissue, like muscles, while X-Ray machines can only see bones.

Robot Assisted Surgery

I also became very interested in robot assisted surgery, since this technology seems to build off last week’s lecture. Robots can duplicate the hand motions of a surgeon, and can this allow “a specialist to operate on a patient who is very far away without either of them having to travel” (allaboutrobocsurgery.com). However, they are still prohibitively expensive for most applications.

"All About Robotic Surgery." Surgical Robots, Robotic Surgery, Robotic Systems. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. <http://allaboutroboticsurgery.com/surgicalrobots.html>.

Casini, Silvia. "Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts." Configurations: 73-99. Print.

Gould, RT-(R)(MR)(ARRT), and Molly Edmonds. HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks.com. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/mri5.htm>.

"History of Robotic Surgery." History of Robotic Surgery. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. <http://www.laparoscopyhospital.com/history_of_robotic_surgery.htm>.

"Robot-assisted Surgery." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot-assisted_surgery>.

"Science Museum. Brought to Life: Exploring the History of Medicine." Art and Anatomy. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. 

<http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/themes/understandingthebody/anatomy.aspx>

"Sylvie Guillems." X Ray Art. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. <http://sylvieguillems.blogspot.com/2010/06/x-ray-art.html>.

"Vesalius's Renaissance Anatomy Lessons." Vesalius's Renaissance Anatomy Lessons. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. <http://www.bl.uk/learning/artimages/bodies/vesalius/renaissance.html>.

Web. 27 Apr. 2015. <http://picslist.com/image/29065540172>.

Robotics and Art

The silent movie, Modern Times, that stars Charlie Chaplin, provides a good characterization for the mechanical automation that dominated the second industrial revolution. The famous “Factory Scene” is very funny, but is also a critique of society, or a critique of the direction that the filmmakers thought society was moving in.

Charlie Chaplin in  Modern Times

In Modern Times, “the worker becomes an appendage of the machine,” not the other way around (“Chaplin: Analysis of Modern Times.”) It was films like this one that led people in Western societies to be afraid of robots and the industrialization that they bring.

Another movie that builds on the Western cultural fear of robots and mechanization is The Terminator. Meia Chita-Tegmark writes that “the prevalent visual representation of AI risk has become the terminator robots,” and I think she is correct in assuming that Western society fears the advancement of AI.

However, as Professor Vesna mentioned in the lecture, Japanese society has traditionally been more open to robots. This sentiment is expressed in the anime, Android Kikaider, where a humanoid robot develops a friendship with humans and ultimately saves the day ("Android Kikaider: The Animation.")    

Outside the world of fiction, robotics is being pioneered here at UCLA in Dr. Dennis Hong’s RoMeLa laboratory. I have a friend that works in this lab, where he manufacturing parts for a hexapod robot, and a humanoid robot, THOR. According to the group, “THOR-RD’s humanoid form is ideal for the human centric environments encountered in disaster areas.” (Team THOR.) Thus, humanoid robots are not only fear inducing elements in science fiction; they are useful in real world scenarios.

RoMeLa's Hexapod Robot

Disaster Relief Robot, THOR

Amazingly, in the future, robots may even be creating their own art, called algorithmic art! ("Creative AI: The Robots That Would Be Painters.")

Algorithmic Art

"Android Kikaider: The Animation." IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0305046/>.

"Chaplin: Analysis of Modern Times." Philosophy Philosophers. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. <http://www.the-philosophy.com/chaplin-analysis-modern-times>.

Chita-Tegmark, Meia. "Terminator Robots and AI Risk." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/meia-chitategmark/terminator-robots-and-ai-risk_b_6788918.html>.

"Creative AI: The Robots That Would Be Painters." Creative AI: The Robots That Would Be Painters. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. <http://www.gizmag.com/creative-ai-algorithmic-art-painting-fool-aaron/36106/>.

"Home." Team THOR. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. <http://www.thordrc.com/>.

"My Seven Species of Robot." Dennis Hong:. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. <http://www.ted.com/talks/dennis_hong_my_seven_species_of_robot>.

I am very interested in the various mathematical patterns and ratios that show up in nature and can be used to make art realistic and aesthetically pleasing. One of these patterns that Professor Vesna described was the Fibonacci sequence. When I was little, my Grandpa showed me that pine cones and sunflowers have Fibonacci patterns in them, so it was interesting to see their relationship to the world of art.

The Fibonacci Sequence in a Plant

The golden ratio, phi, was also interesting to learn about. Although it is not widely used in math (compared to pi, or e), it has been used in arts and architecture for thousands of years. Professor Vesna discussed how the Parthenon was designed using the golden ratio so that it would be timelessly aesthetically pleasing. 

The Parthenon with the Golden Ratio

The Parthenon itself is a work of art, and thus clearly shows how mathematics can influence the artistic world. If the Parthenon was designed without knowledge of the golden ratio, I doubt that it would be as iconic and timeless. In the past, architects have needed to have some knowledge of math, so that they could design proportional and aesthetically pleasing buildings. I think it’s safe to say that this fact will continue into the future.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, by Edwin Abbott Abbott seems to be a very original (although somewhat convoluted and outdated) piece of literature. I’ve never read anything quite like it, as the author pretends to be a square and uses other geometric figures to describe society.

M. C. Escher’s Waterfall is another interesting application of mathematics in art. He uses two Penrose triangles, which are physically impossible figures (and thus ignore the laws of perspective) to draw a perpetual motion machine. Water flows from the base of a waterfall to the top, without appearing to travel higher in elevation, and therefore abiding by the first law of conservation of energy. 

Waterfall lithograph, 1961

Abbott, Edwin Abbott. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1963. Print.

"Fibonacci in Nature." Fibonacci in Nature. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.

"The Golden Section / Golden Ratio - Phi 1.618: The Golden Number." Phi 1618 The Golden Number. N.p., 14 May 2012. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.

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

"Pics For The Parthenon Golden Ratio." Pics For The Parthenon Golden Ratio. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.

The Story of 1. YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.

The cultural distinction between the arts and sciences is strongly ingrained into modern western society. I think that it is particularly ingrained in academic institutions like UCLA due to the traditional approach to learning that is analyzed in the RSA Animate production “Changing Education Paradigms.” This video resonated with me because it described and analyzed the education system, a topic that I am strongly invested in, having spent the last fifteen-plus years of my life learning in traditional educational environments. It proposed interesting ideas like the notion that ADHD is being over diagnosed, and that divergent thinking is stifled by our system of learning.

As many people have noted in their blogs, UCLA is a microcosm of the arts and science culture dichotomy. When you tour UCLA, one of the first things that the tour guides mention is that north Campus is where the arts and humanities classes are located, and south campus is where the sciences and engineering classes are located. As students, we perpetuate this distinction by rarely traveling to the other side of campus, and proudly purchasing shirts that display the division.

South and North Campus T-shirts

The book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig approaches the arts /science or aesthetic/analytical dichotomy. Pirsig concludes that there is an overarching idea, that he calls “Quality,” that transcends the unnatural cultural schism. He feels that great works of art and science are driven by pursuit of the same ideal. This book helped me reconcile studying engineering with my desire to have a creative profession.

There are many places where the arts and sciences naturally come together to create amazing work. The Ferrari LaFerrari is a supercar with a beautiful, yet functional exterior that has incredible performance due to precision engineering.

Ferrari LaFerrari

When science and art come together, they create wonder.

Sources

Changing Education Paradigms. Perf. Sir Ken Robinson. YouTube. Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, 14 Oct. 2010. Web. <http://youtu.be/zDZFcDGpL4U>.

"LaFerrari: The Most Extreme Performance Ever Achieved by a Ferrari." Ferrari GT. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2015.

Miller, John. "The Art and Science of Content Creation." The Art and Science of Content Creation. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2015.

Pirsig, Robert M. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values. New York: HarperTorch, 2006. Print.

Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Cambridge UP, 1959. Print.

"Store." Beta Psi Chapter. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2015.

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance | Paperback." HarperCollins US. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2015.