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Event 1: COLOR LIGHT MOTION: Featuring Ryszard Kluszczyński O n Saturday I had the pleasure of attending a virtual event on the work of Wen-Ying Tsai in Cybernetic sculptures. Before the event, I was completely unaware of what cybernetics was and how it differed from robotics. The difference is that cybernetics is “ to understand and define the functions and processes of systems that have goals, and that participate in circular, causal chains that move from action to sensing to comparison with the desired goal to action”. At the same time, robotics is the physical entity that acts (Edinformatics). Cybernetics is the infrastructure that allows the robot, the physical entity, to be.  Wen-Ying Tsai is best known for “ his cybernetic sculptures, which he developed in the mid-1960s and continued to work on throughout his life” ( Tsai Art and Science Foundation ). See some examples of his work in cybernetics below. Some of his most noteworthy works included an “ impressive piece of all...

T he origins of plastic surgery date back as far as 800 B.C. in India (Champaneria et al.). However, the World Wars of the 20th century truly allowed for the rise of plastic surgery as we see it now (Bouhadana et al.). Initially, the focus of plastic surgery was reconstruction to restore features to “normalcy” following mutilation. Below is a World War I veteran that underwent reconstructive surgery.   Via Plastic Surgery of the Face by Dr. Harold Gillies This was soon recognized as a profitable market for unnecessary aesthetic alterations, becoming known as cosmetic surgery. It is undeniable that plastic surgery, which encompasses both reconstructive and cosmetic surgery is an art form as the “doctor also sees the procedure with an artist's eye, discerning the subtleties of form and symmetry to make decisions that will transform not just tissue but lives” ( Brumby ). The dawn of social media has normalized cosmetic surgery more than in the past, with 48.5% of people reporting fee...

I t is hard to deny the importance of digital media as on average an individual spends around 480 minutes, or nearly 8 hours a day, consuming digital media ( Guttmann ). Of this digital media, film “occup[ies] a significant portion” ( Kubrak ). Films are unique in that they can “ communicate complex ideas and emotions that may be difficult to express through words alone” ( University, Nirma, and Prakash Gilatar ). In modern day, there is a wealth of movies that bridge the gap between robotics and art.  One example is RoboCop (1987). The main plot of the movie: the humans running the RoboCop operation have poor motives, but RoboCop goes against his “robotic” nature for the greater good. Thus, the film takes a stance against the robotization of humans.   Via IMDb This can be related to industrialization, which boomed through the invention and implementation of the assembly line by Ford in 1913 as seen below (Ford Corporate). The assembly line’s indirect premise is that hum...

T his week’s lecture and reading heavily discussed Fibonocci’s number, which is the “ sequence of numbers 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, …, each of which, after the second, is the sum of the two previous numbers'' (Britannica). This is better known as the “golden ratio.” I have only seen the golden ratio related to architecture. I never thought to examine it in other art forms. However, the Fibonacci sequence often comes in handy for crochet design and measurements (Press Reader). Below, I have included how the sequence can appear in basic blanket designs. Fibonacci’s number isn’t only present in art, but also in science. Plants in nature have been shown to exhibit this ratio. Sunflowers are just one of many plants that exhibit this; their seeds spiral in a pattern that reflects Fibonacci’s number and the golden ratio (National Museum of Mathematics). An example can be seen of a sunflower exhibiting the golden ratio below. This highlights that art, math, and science are very closel...

T he division of “physical scientists” and “literary intellectuals,” better colloquially defined as “two cultures”, represents the separation of art and science (Snow 4). This divide can be directly observed through the North and South campus separation at UCLA (see below), with North campus focusing on art and South campus on science. As a South campus major, I have relied heavily on visual depictions in textbooks, which inherently illustrates the connection between science and art. Nitya Tak and Justing Jung via the Daily Bruin Historically, many people have bridged the “two cultures”; one of them being Leonardo da Vinci. I have only ever known Leonardo da Vinci to be a world class artist known for painting the “Mona Lisa,” however he also made significant contributions to science via anatomically accurate depictions of the human body. Leonardo Da Vinci via The Royal Collection ©2011, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Through this, I stumbled upon an entirely new career:  medical i...