Extra Event 2: Museum of Liaoning province

 

 

Museum of Liaoning province is the largest museum in Liaoning province. Although it is considered an integrated museum, I could feel that it is different from the Naitonal Museum of China.The culture of my province is more specific. People who visit this museum get to know a particicular culture in a more specific way.

 

The first thing I saw in the museum is the voice guide counter. Visitors can rent a voice guide machine at the counter. This is quite common in big museums in China, but in this case, it reminded me that technology is everywhere, even in a place where only ancient objects are being displayed.

 

 



 It was also interesting to actually see technology and ancient art existing at the same place. In the glass box where ancient antiques were being displayed, there was a machine as shown in the picture above, monitoring the temperature and humidity in the box. CCTV cameras were everywhere to keep the art works safe.

 

This museum is not so technologically advanced as the National Museum of China. Yet we saw modern technology everywhere. Hence I had this strong feeling that technology is already part of culture. In the future when more modern technology is being applied, there should not be any conflicts.

 

The problem of the two cultures may no longer exist in the future, as advancements in technology is merging the culures into a whole.

Extra event 1: Museum of Chinese Industry

As a citizen of Shenyang, I felt proud that the Museum of Chinese Industry is located here. Shenyang is one of the largest industrial cities in China. A lot of technological advances happened here. Visiting the museum was to get familiar with the history of China’s technological development.

When I typed down the word ‘history’, technology here is already connected to a kind of art. Most people would agree with me that museums and art cannot be separated. I have a friend who is studying museum management in Australia. Her professor told her that no matter what kind of museum she is in charge of, the way people display objects is always art. Now, in Museum of Chinese Industry, machines become the subject to be appreciated by visitors. In this museum, I just find it so easy to connect modern technology with art.

What I found interesting was the machine tool which made the nation’s first national emblem. The machine was first designated to make other machines, not to make only emblems. Hence, I concluded that modern art had a lot in common with modern technology.

Visiting the Museum of Chinese Industry is a combination of history enrichment and art education. Making machinery the subject of art was never in my mind throughout the course. This visit made me realize the artistic value of machinery exhibition. There are a lot of former factories that are transformed into art zones, where artists build their galleries. I look forward to visit some of them as well.

 

Reference:

Museum of Chinese Industry, http://www.chnim.org/index/
Museum of Chinese Industry, Wikepedia Chinese, http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E5%B7%A5%E4%B8%9A%E5%8D%9A%E7%89%A9%E9%A6%86

Event 3: National Museum of China

I went to Beijing to visit the National Museum of China, one of the largest museums in the country. As the museum has as many as 1,050,000 permanent collections, I was interested to figure out how these invaluable collections are being preserved. Furthermore, I also heard that National Museum of China had a reputation of ‘interactive museum’. From how people described the museum I thought there must be some connections to modern technology, but how? I brought this question to the museum as well.

In week 4 I did some research on biotechnology, and found out that scientists are using bio-nanotechnology to preserve art works. Thus, I went to ask people in the museum about whether such technology is being applied in the museum. They told me that such a technology is still being worked on, but biotech knowledge is essential for preservation of ancient drawings, sculptures and other antiques. Scientists and archaeologists in the museum have figured out the perfect temperature and humidity for keeping the collections. Objects made of different materials were applied different kinds of chemicals to lower the possibility of natural erosion. In such case, science is actually helping art. Without application of scientific theories, many objects shown in the museum may not even be able to last for long time. The fact that such preservation technology is being applied instead of being just ideal made me excited.

The interaction of the museum with visitors also impressed me. The museum itself guides us around. For example, behind the ‘rabbit head’ and the ‘horse head’ from Yuanmingyuan, there is a screen telling the story of Yuanmingyuan, once the prettiest garden in China. Animation and three-dimensional technology are used to explain origins of culture. In National Museum of China, technology makes art more straight forward. Even for people who cannot read, they get to learn something about art when they are attracted by this high-tech fantasy.

Today, everything is moving toward technology. Visiting the National Museum of China made me realize that one of the major functions of technology in the field of art is to promote it. Internet makes most forms of art available to net users; new technologies provides creative platforms for art and last but not the least, technology makes certain forms of art more appealing to people who are not very familiar with art theories.

Reference:

National Museum of China, wikepedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_China
National Museum of China, http://en.chnmuseum.cn/(S(azejfy55ofe13hei0zpbzr2d))/default.aspx

Event 2: Shenyang Urban Planning Exhibition Hall

 

Overview model of Shenyang city

 

The Shenyang Urban Planning and Exhibition Hall is dedicated to the current city planning of Shenyang and also takes into consideration the cultural heritage. It combines past, present and future. An interactive city model of 800 square meters makes future become reality. The visitors can influence the action from the galleries by moving single modules and thus create their own image of the city of tomorrow.

The concept of the Third Culture is pretty straight forward to me when I visited the museum. I never thought about planning a city. For me, this is too big a problem. When leaders are planning a city, both technological development and aesthetics have to be considered.  As I visited this museum as an event of Desma9, I brought along questions: how do people consider both science and art when building a city? Is there a conflict between science and art in civil engineering?

The conflict definitely exists. If you ask an artist to plan a city, he or she would come up a plan that everybody appreciates, except for scientists, who would doubt the feasibility of such a proposal. In the museum, such a conflict is everywhere. In the museum, I saw the original design of Shenyang Art Center. The ideal art center was much bigger, and expanded further. However, this plan was altered by architects to lower the risks involved.  This reminded me of the ‘Bird Nest’ national sports stadium in Beijing. The design was appealing, and the bird nest structure provides strong support to the building. Indeed, architecture can be seen as a kind of ‘third culture’. Architects must be both artists and scientists in order to succeed.

 

                                          The original design of Shenyang Art Center

 

In this museum, there are sculptures and drawings, as well as LED screens and video demonstrations.  Art and science co-exist in a harmonious way. What left me the greatest impression was a video scroll, when technology is applied to make a new form of art presentation.

 

                                                                    the video scroll

                                              a sculpture showing the ancient empiral palace

   

Shenyang Urban Planning and Exhibition Hall is beautiful and ‘high-tech’. It showed me that my hometown Shenyang, as a city, is being built and developed by both scientists and artists. The world is to some extent similar: scientists and artists work together to make it thrive.


Citations:
Shenyang City Planning Exhibition Hall, China, 2007, http://www.atelier-brueckner.com/en/projects/developments/shenyang-city-planning-exhibition-hall-china-2007.html
 

Event 1: Shenyang Science and Technology Museum

The first place I visited was the Shenyang Science and Technology Museum. I heard that it used to have the largest robotics exhibition in China, so I thought that it would help me understand more about the relationship between robotics and art.  This museum incorporates a theatre where science-fictional movies are being shown.

About robotics and art

In the lectures I learnt that robotics provide a new way of expressing art. The third hand, for example, showed me an art form that I have never seen before.

 

I was not sure about whether robotic art can have an impact on audience until I witnessed the show in Shenyang Science and Technology Museum. They had a band of robots, each playing different musical instruments. The music they played was simple and not even attractive, but the facts that it was played by robots made a lot of people stop by and listen.  Hence, I realized that currently what is indeed appealing about robotic art is that people want to see the robots, and to a great extent, art is being promoted under such circumstances.

                                                                          The robot band

When we visit robots at museums, no matter what kind of robots we are looking for, we are already appreciating art. Somehow I felt that museums are always related to art, and I did see robots as artistic masterpieces. The appearances of robots shown in the museum was made high-tech looking. I saw a lot of robots, some of which are not even charged. However I must admit that robots are creatures that are carefully crafted by men. Hence, there is no doubt that robots themselves can be seen as art.

                                                            a robot chess player 

 

About the science-fictional movie, ‘tour to the universe’

This science-fictional movie, tour to the universe, is a story of a young boy travelling to the universe by train. In the movie, a lot of concepts relating to space science are being explained. For example, I learnt how combustion of fuel occurs in a lack-of-oxygen environment.

The idea of taking a train to other planets at first seemed ridiculous to me. After the theory of such an idea was explained in the movie, I realized that most parts of such an approach are scientifically correct. Art has this function of visualizing scientific theories. While pure text and diagrams do not make much sense to people other than scientists, art gives people a basic idea. The attractiveness of such kind of art has made a lot of people put in much effort realizing those fascinating scenes in movies, fictions and drawings.

 

Just a one-hour visit to the museum gave me more connections between art and science. As there are always new exhibitions and shows on in this museum, I hope to visit Shenyang Science and Technology again next summer.

 

 

Week 5, nanotech, space and art

I was surprised to find out that both Nanotechnology and Space Science had already been developing in the 20^th century, as I was only familiar with these concepts after I attended middle school. During the late 20^th century, when science and technology were still not that developed as what we see today, scientists used their creativity to find multiple ways of research. Indeed, both science and art are about creativity and exploration.

Nanotech+ Art

 The development of nanotechnology has provided art with another form of presentation. Before listening to this week’s lecture, I was wondering whether art works can be made smaller applying nanotechnology.  In fact, Joe Davis, an artist that I read about last week, has confirmed my thoughts by his genome research.

Nanotechnology is not only a medium of art, but also an inspiration to artists. A nanotechnology artist, Murray Robertson, established a online Nanomedicine gallery. When I browsed through the pictures, I found out that all works he has done are inspired by the research of cells, atoms and molecules. The drawings are indeed beautiful, as the images we see directly from electro- microscopes are already amazing.

 

a beautiful picture inspired by the study of nanotechnology

 

I also read an article about preserving art in the nano scale. A nanofluid system to restore wall paintings has been developed by Italian scientists. In this case, art initiates science development as we all know that art works are invaluable treasure.

Space+ Art

It is not hard to build relationship between space and art. They both have been fascinated us for long time. Science fictions are always somehow related to space science, as space is always an unknown world to us, and we know that there is always things there worth exploring.

 

The Space is one of the most popular theme in aritistic industry

As space science develops, space art has become more ‘scientific’. To some extent, space science limits the creativity of artists. Before space was studied, artists do not need to consider the ‘facts’ of the universe. In such an era when research of the space is booming, artists can still choose to stick to their own fascination of the universe, but  in my opinion they can be affected.

Though space science may have some adverse impact on art work, it does give artists the opportunity to try what are used to be impossible. I read this article about an art project, ‘Dancing on the Ceiling’, and it is the development of space research and physics that made this show possible.

 

walking on the ceiling was once just imagination, and it is realized by space science

 

Looking at pictures made by Chesley Bonestell gives me the impulse to explore the universe, and I bet that I am not the only one who has gained such idea. Art promotes space science when more ordinary people like me become fans of the world outside the earth.

Citation:

art in the age of nanotechnology, A Perth International Arts Festival exhibition, http://www.artabase.net/exhibition/2104-art-in-the-age-of-nanotechnology

Can Art Make Nanotechnology Easier to Understand? National Geographic News, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/12/1223_031223_nanotechnology.html

Maiken Lilley, The Art of Nanotech, NOVA, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/art-nanotech.html

Preserving art at the nanoscale, http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/ChemScience/Volume/2010/08/Preserving_art.asp

Nanotechnology Artist- Murray Robertson, Hank Pellissier, Ethical Technology, http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/pellissier20120116

Dance on the ceiling, art and zero gravity, http://zerogravity.empac.rpi.edu/

The art of Chesley Bonestell, http://www.bonestell.org/

Radiation Art http://weirdgalaxy.com/display.php?id=39

Week 4, neuro science, biotech and art

Neuroscience + Art

I spent some time reading psychology books when I was in high school. I understand that the study of neuroscience helps explain the rationale of people’s action.  Since to a great extent, creativity has led to the development of art, neuroscience may also help explain where our creativity comes from and how creativity varies among different individuals.

Sigmund Freud, one of the most significant figures in the study of human brain, has inspired artists in different ways. A Dangerous Method, for example, is a 2011 historical film directed by David Cronenberg. The movie describes the turbulent relationships between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. For people who are less familiar with analytical psychology, this film provides concise but precise neuroscience knowledge.

The movie 'inception'

 

 

 

Like what I always said, art also influences the development of science. Another movie, Inception, which is a story of dreams, created fascination toward the study of dreams among audience worldwide. What I wish to bring up is the further application of art in the field of neuroscience. The development of science will absolutely make the application of art in neuroscience more common. We talked about Dr. Diane Gromala last week, and her research achievements are indeed encouraging.

BioTech + Art

In the past few weeks we have been discussing the relationship between art and science, and BioTech gives art and science multiple ways to connect. Microvenus brings me to the idea of molecular artwork. Scientists such as Joe Davis, who embedded artwork in a bacterial genome, successfully expressed their artistic work in the form of biotechnology.

In the field of biotech, art still serves the function of spreading ideology. In the site embracing animal, movies are there to raise awareness of the current status of rats. Artistic skills can be used to make a presentation more convincing and hence theories can be more easily spread and accepted.

 

Interesting questions from Ruth West

From the various interesting questions by Ruth West, there are two questions in particular that I wish to discuss.

Is life itself a valid expressive medium?

It was written in the article Expressive Lives that ‘culture roots us in our past and enables us to imagine and create the future.’ I agree with such a statement as using our life to demonstrate our creativity is far more direct and clearer than using other medium. Our creativity may appear at any time, and our body, behavior and emotion would be the only medium that is always available to us.

 

The transparent room can be seen as an example of using our lives as medium for art expression

 

 

 

Is there a limit for human creativity?

This is a question that can be discussed from both the art and science prospect. Science can analyze this issue in a scientific way, including estimating the potential of the human brain. I am not sure how an artist would answer this question, but his or her response would definitely be different from a scientific one. Now let me offer my personal response: no. such an answer comes from my personal reflection. In 2005 I bought my first iphone and thought such thing already could not be further improved. Now I am holding an iphone5. It is human creativity that always pushes us forward.

 

Citations:
A Dangerous Method, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Dangerous_Method
Inception, http://veja.abril.com.br/blog/ricardo-setti/files/2012/03/a-origem.jpg
John Davis: Genetics and Culture, http://www.viewingspace.com/genetics_culture/pages_genetics_culture/gc_w03/davis_joe.htm
Microvenus: Joe Davis: Genetics and Culture, http://www.viewingspace.com/genetics_culture/pages_genetics_culture/gc_w03/davis_microvenus.htm
embracing animal: rats' status report, http://www.embracinganimal.com/status.html
Samuel Jones, Expressive lives, http://www.demos.co.uk/files/ExpressiveLives_web_ii.pdf
The transparent room, Spruth Magers Berlin London, http://www.spruethmagers.com/artists/robert_therrien@@viewq0
Apple iphone 5 review, http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Apple-iPhone-5-Review_id3133/page/4

 

 

 

 

Week 3, Med-tech

Over the past hundreds of years, medicine has developed from a kind of art to pure science. I was not able to relate medicine to any kind of art until listening to one of the lectures. Indeed, medicine can be viewed from the artistic prospect. Imaging yourself in a traditional Chinese medicine clinic, listening to some peaceful music, appreciating the beautiful wooden furniture, given prescriptions that you cannot understand at all- you would feel that somehow, medicine and art are connected. 

                       A picture of traditional Chinese medicine therapy, somehow seems artistic to me

 

 

 

The first interesting thing I found from the lecture was Orlan’s performance of plastic surgery. Orlan made many transformations to her body. She explores different techniques such as photography, video and sculpture. The performance of Orlan is a significant application of medicine in the field of art. Before Orlan came out, the pursuit for beauty has already inspired medicine to make progress.  It was a group of artists who gave hope to facially wounded soldiers- that plastic surgeries were possible and available to them.

Early plastic surgeries were far from perfect, but efforts were made to make those wounded faces aesthetically acceptable

 

 

 

Medicine also enables art to be expressed in more ways. The third hand, mentioned in the lecture, is an art expression inspired by the study of body movement. The third hand would not be created without an artist, and on the other hand, it was medical theories and researches which made the project possible.

Art is playing a more important role in the field of medicine nowadays. Diane Gromala was one of the first artists to work with immersive virtual reality, and her research in implications of art and technology has led to her unique approach in fighting chronic pain. Art is being used more widely in body treatments. Music Therapy, for example, is the use of music by health care professionals to promote healing and enhance quality of life for their patients. Nowadays, health knowledge from medicine professionals is being spread in various forms of art, such as movies and comic books.

Dr. Diane Gromala is one of the pioneers working with immersive virtual reality, and applied her research work in the treatment of chronic pain (an artist contributing to the field of medicine)

 

Citations:

Shenzhen to Promote Traditional Chinese Medical Clinics in Communities, www.shenzhen-standard.com

Orlan, Biography, Awards and Grants, http://www.orlan.eu/biography/

Pioneering plastic surgery records from First World War pubilished, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9396435/Pioneering-plastic-surgery-records-from-First-World-War-published.html

Faces of War, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/mask.html

Diane Gromala, Wikepedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Gromala

Dr. Diane Gromala of SFU's School of Interactive Arts and Technology, grand-nce.ca

Music Therapy, American Cancer Society, http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/complementaryandalternativemedicine/mindbodyandspirit/music-therapy

 

Week 2 Blog, Maths, Industrialization, art and science

Before listening to the lectures, the only application of Mathematics in art that I am familiar with is computer drawing. Computer technologies are widely applied in the field of art, to produce works that cannot be crafted by human hands.  The floating numbers table, for example, is a more sophisticated version of ‘math-art’.  It is an interactive table on which a continuous stream of numbers is floating. Individual digits appear randomly at the surface and, once touched by a visitor, reveal their meaning in text, pictures, animation and small interactive applications.  I also realized that man’s application of mathematics in art can be traced back to hundreds of years ago. The famous drawing, Vitruvian Man, by Da Vinci, applied the theory of the Golden Ratio to create an image of a man with perfect body proportion. Maurits  Cornelis Escher created various works that integrated mathematics together with art.

The Vitruvian man is an early application of art in painting

 

It was easier for me to think of influence of industrialization on art and science.  I always see industrialization as the engine of science and innovations.  Innovations which are significant in the field of science, including light bulb by Thomas Edison, telegraph by Samuel F.B. Morse, as well as telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell, emerged during the wave of industrial revolution in America. Such inventions are of great importance to the world’s scientific development. I also believe that industrialization has two major impacts on art. The first would be the development of computer technology leading to more forms of presentation, which was discussed in the previous chapter.  I was surprised to find out about kinetic sculptures with movements by Fred Abels. The second influence is from the development of the printing industry. The development of printing technology makes mass production of art much easier and hence facilitates the spread of art around the world.

3D printer can possibly create more forms of art presentation

 

 

 

Juxtaposition of mathematics, industrialization, art and science becomes easier as both the world and the way we think develop. The development of technology creates more opportunities for science and art to collaborate. Here, I would like to emphasize on my observations on movies and dramas. When filming a movie or drama, more technologies are applied in these days. Science development helps to create amazing visual effects. The popular TV drama, the Big Bang Theory, discusses science theories in the show. It proves to us that science theories can be entertaining just like art.

 

The big bang theory is a story of scientists

 

Citations:

The floating numbers. http://www.artcom.de/en/projects/project/detail/floatingnumbers/

The Mathematical Art of M.C. Escher http://www.mathacademy.com/pr/minitext/escher/

The Vitruvian Man http://curezone.com/ig/i.asp?i=52832

Top 10 Significant Industrial Revolution Inventors http://americanhistory.about.com/od/industrialrev/tp/inventors.htm

Fred Abels, http://www.fabels.org/fred.html

Cubify Brings Simplified 3D Printing To Consumers, http://techli.com/2012/04/cubify-3d-printer/

Big Bang theory, georgepsigot.wordpress.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

week 1, the two cultures

The concept of ‘the two cultures’ sounds familiar to me as similar topics were discussed when I was in high school. I was asked to analyze the possibility of co-existence of two seemingly contradicting subjects, such as ‘science and art’ and ‘science and religion’. C.P Snow held a relatively extreme view, that the problem of culture separation is a ‘major hindrance to solving the world’s problems.’

From what I have learnt, I agree with Snow on the importance of culture separation, as both technology and humanity contribute to the world’s sophistication.

Sometimes it is not hard for me to notice the distinction between art and technology. In UCLA, I built up the ability to change my role, from an artist to a scientist. I can have a history class after my oceanography lecture, and I would force my brain into the ‘art mode’ from a typical ‘science mode’.

 

UCLA is a place where students from both art and science streams study together

2010 UCLA College of Letters and Science Commencement,

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0PDoKt2NtVRpHgAuy2JzbkF?p=UCLA+school+of+letters+and+science&fr=yfp-t-900&ei=utf-8&n=30&x=wrt&y=Search

Sheldon Richmond emphasizes the role of science in resolving conflict emerging from cultural distinction. Examples can be found everywhere. With the development of the science, people find more ways of interacting with others from a different background. Traveling is made faster by supersonic planes and bullet trains; Conversations are made easier by Skype and MSN, and there were cases when I make friends at school just because we played the same iPhone game!

 

 

Faster carriers make travelling much more convenient

FWA winner, DuPont in Transportation,

 

However, the two cultures will never become ‘an entity’. Our future is to some extent shaped by our choice of ‘art’ or ‘science’. A good student may try to do well in both fields, but it is highly probable that he or she can only excel in one of them.

The choice is inevitable

Crazytown- Art vs Science, the personal edition

www.crazytownblog.com

 

 

 

Citations:

‘The two cultures’, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Cultures

Sheldon Richmond, <The Two Cultures Problem>, Philosophy of Science, http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Scie/ScieRich.htm

Doug Wilson, <Examining The Two Cultures Theory Of Fisheries Knowledge: The Case of The Northwest Atlantic Bluefish>

C.P. Snow, ‘ The Two Cultures’ London: Cambridge University Press, 1959

Crazytown- Art vs Science, The personal edition, www.crazytownblog.com