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Event 1/Extra Credit

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Arctic Wolves For my event, I visited the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History. Specifically, I toured the halls of African Mammals and North American Mammals. The exhibits featured many large, well known animals like lions, grizzly bears, elephants etc. Animals from around the world had been preserved and very artistically displayed in well-thought out exhibits with very detailed painted backgrounds. The science of ecosystems and nature was blended with artistic tinge to create these life-like displays of these commonly known animals. In addition to being well known, one thing I noticed that a lot of the animals on display had in common was that they were endangered. It is no secret that the development of human civilization over the past few thousands of years has driven some animals to extinction, including the marsupial rhino and giant kangaroo. Primarily human action has caused the animals on exhibit in the museum to become extinct as well (Durfee). Lowland Gorilla T
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Event 3: Body Worlds

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Digestive System Display For my second event, I visited the Body Worlds exhibit at the California Science Center. The exhibit features human organs and organ systems separated and preserved, enabling viewers of the exhibit to view first hand the different structures and functions of different parts of the human body. Thought the exhibit showed primarily individual systems, it conveyed well the interdependence of the systems on each other. Ancient Egyptian Dissection Being at the exhibit made me realize how far the human understanding of the human body and the representation of the human body has come. The first instances of dissections of recorded trace back to Ancient Egyptians (Vesna). After the death of Egyptians, their bodies would be cut open and mummified. This process often entailed skilled morticians altering the bodies in ways that preserved them for thousands of years. This process has been captured in much Egyptian art and is well-known today. Art and science w
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Space and Art

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From very early on in human civilization, the sky has been a source of curiosity for people on Earth. The video, Powers of Ten, conveys the vastness of space, zooming in as far in as a proton and far enough out to capture the galaxies in our own cluster as well as those as far away as the Virgo Cluster ("Powers of Ten"). It is no surprise then that it has found its way into artwork ranging from thousands of years ago, to present day. Stone Henge, a world heritage site in England composed of large rock slabs dated back to around 2100 BC. Though it appears artistic, researchers have determined that it is modeled after the stars and possesses astronomical qualities ("Introductory..."). Stone Henge Throughout history, because gazing up at the sky and admiring the stars is such a timeless experience, there is a myriad of artwork centered around stars. Cultures ranging from ancient Africans to Native North Americans, to Islamic cultures on the Arabian Peninsula
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Art and Nanotechnology

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In many spaces of advancement of today’s world, science appears to be pushing the front farther and farther forward, changing many aspects of our lives. New technologies and information are developed on a daily basis that continually alter the human existence. Nanotechnology seems to be one of these areas. Richard Feyman, a renowned American physicist, first introduced the idea to science in a talk in 1959, titled “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” (Gimzewski). Over the course of the following decades, scientists have developed this technology into many areas, including cancer detection, agricultural production, and gene therapy (Boyle). Nanotechnology Altering DNA What is interesting though is that it seems art may have begun experimenting in nanotechnology long before the scientists. Nanoparticles, defined particles on the size from one to 100 nanometers, have been used in art for centuries, only artists had not realized it. One example is the Lycarus Cup using nano-sized
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Neuroscience and Art

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Artistic Depiction of Human Brain I think that the study of art and the brain is particularly interesting because the ideas and creativity that spur artists to design their work originates in some way, shape or form from their brains. Whether they are inspired externally or internally, the action of shaping their work occurs within their minds. Similarly, humans experience art through their brain after it is perceived by their senses (Tucker). Carl Jung On a physical level, every human has the same physical makeup roughly, of their brains. They have the same types of cells, the same types of neurotransmitters, etc. It is fascinating that these same components can produce such a wide array of artists, and people in general. John Brockman believed that despite all of the science and math defining these components, that “conscious involves noncomputable ingredients” (Brockman). How then does one characterize the brain? Another school of thought believed that the brain couldn
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Bio Art

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Joe Davis With the discovery of DNA and subsequent ability to manipulate it, it has arisen as a potential medium for art. Some artists like Joe Davis (Vesna) have seized the opportunity and pioneered it as a new canvas on which to paint. As a medium this calls into question the ethics of using DNA as an art form as well the value of the medium (Elsevier). Joe Davis noted that he is likely the most successful publisher in history because the E.coli. This highlights a key feature of art being encoded in DNA in that it can be replicated very quickly and efficiently. Thus his Microvenus symbol is within the DNA of millions of cells of E.coli. Another feature of art being encoded as DNA is the permanence and capacity of the data stored within in it. Supposedly all of the world’s data could be stored in it (Extance). Microvenus There are ethical concerns about using DNA as well. One such example is if using it as an art medium could continue into genetically modifying o
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Event 2: Vivarium

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Human-less Capsule The Vivarium was an exhibit designed by Maru Garcia that features one enclosed environment with plant life and some insects and one similar environment except a human was inside the encapsulated environment. Cameras within each environment then showed close ups on large projector screens of what was inside each. Plant Life What struck me most about the exhibit was the juxtaposition. These two very similar capsules, with one distinct difference, the presence of humans. The human-less environment was planted, filled with necessary soil and water, and sealed. The result was that the plants were able to grow undisturbed without the unsealing of the enclosure. The roots would take up the water, have it evaporated from their leaves, the water would condense on the sides of the dome, and run back down into the soil to be taken up the roots again. The system could continue almost endlessly without disruption. Contrast this with the other enclosure. The system i
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