City of Cinema

I recently had the opportunity to visit the City of Cinema: Paris 1850 - 1907 exhibit at LACMA, and I am glad I did since I managed to take away important and interesting insights from it. Placing cinema in the context of 19th-century Parisian visual culture, City of Cinema: Paris 1850 – 1907 explores how film emerged amid a wave of social, political, artistic, and technological developments. The exhibition brings together paintings, sculpture, posters, prints, photography, and film to reflect the range of artistic experiments that culminated in cinema as a mass medium [1]. From the streets of Paris, through domestic and theatrical sites, finally Cinema conquered local and global sites of production by heavily relying on new technological advancements in order to explore the new medium’s potential. 

City of Cinema: Paris 1850 - 1907 exhibit at LACMA

As a consequence, the exhibit displays a large number of artworks that are intrinsically influenced by new methodologies and ideas. 

During my visit I was particularly struck by a recently rediscovered diorama-painting by Louis Daguerre and Charles-Marie Bouton. As I mentioned the painting embodies the perfect archetype of diorama, a unique form of painting consisting of a three-dimensional exhibit, often miniature in scale, frequently housed in a cubicle and viewed through an aperture [2]. The rigorous application of the laws of perspective and light is essential to the success of the diorama. Daguerre is usually given the credit for the development of it, as, along with his co-worker Charles-Marie Bouton, in 1822 he opened an exhibition in Paris that he called the Diorama. 

Daguerre's rediscovered Diorama (1822)

In the specific painting I was able to see, Daguerre crafted canvases with elements painted on both sides, so that the work shifts in appearance under different lighting conditions. The result is astonishing as nearly two centuries later, the effect is still stunning, as the scene miraculously shifts from day to night, with a figure holding a torch appearing in the center of the canvas, the flame aligned with the once-mysterious hole [3]. 

In conclusion, although this painting is seemingly not interlaced with the general topic of the exhibit, its ever-changing nature, enhanced by the merging of the Two Cultures, produced something that arguably resembles a little movie, as “people in the 17th century went to see it as if it were a cinema” [3]. 

References: 

[1] City of Cinema: Paris 1850 - 1907. Los Angeles County Museum of Art & musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie, Paris. Los Angeles, USA, 2022. 

[2] Pallardy, Richard. Diorama - artistic representation. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2018. 

[3] Cascone, Sarah & Crouwers, Alexandra. “Choir of a gothic church’ by Daguerre & Bouton”, The Appeal of the Unreal, 2019.

Myself at the exhibit

Space + Art

Space is yet another example of the powerful effect of the world of the arts. Allow me to explain myself. While Space could easily represent, at least in the collective imagination, the ultimate limit of what we know and therefore understand, the arts have made this frontier accessible to everybody. Different artistic cultures, in fact, can be credited a lot with bringing a fusion of art and science to the general public [1]. Through various forms and artworks, from television and theater to drawings and paintings, we can confidently say that the Space Age was possible because for centuries the cultural imagination was fed by artists, writers and musicians who dreamed of human activities in space [2]. The interaction and final connection between Space and Art was nothing but the result of all the sciences we have met throughout this class. 

Georges Méliès' Voyage Dans la Lune

Space is the ultimate frontier where all comes together and we are now able to conquer this frontier only after having used all the scientific tools we have studied so far [3]. Space perfectly embodies the last stage of our journey, a journey in which the Two Cultures have mutually influenced each other. Once again this can be proven in this week’s topic, as the race for Space changed profoundly popular culture [4]. As we want to reach new limits we seek to get acclimated even in cold and detached environments such as a Space station. 

Cosmonaut Alexander Polischuk and the Cosmic Dancer

One way of achieving this objective would be, once again, through art. This is where Arthur Woods’ artwork comes into play. In 1993, his sculpture, Cosmic Dancer, was launched to the Russian Mir space station on a Progress rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Cosmic Dancer - a painted geometric form made out of welded aluminum tubing measuring approximately 35 x 35 x 40 centimeters and weighing exactly one kilogram - was the first three-dimensional artwork to be specifically conceived for and officially realized in a space habitat. The purpose of the project was to investigate the properties of sculpture in weightlessness and to evaluate the integration of art into the human space program [5]. But most importantly the sculpture gave pleasure, mitigating the coldness of Space. 

In conclusion, while space might represent the end of our journey, it is truthfully only one more stage in the merging of the Two Cultures, as the role of artists and writers is again crucial in defining our future vision -- and will once again be instrumental in incorporating the facts and discoveries of the space age into the cultural imagination [2].

Cosmonaut Gennadi Manakov and the Cosmic Dancer

References: 

[1] Vesna, Victoria. “Part 6.” Space and Art. May 2022, Los Angeles, UCLA. 

[2] Malina, Roger. “The Leonardo Space Art Project Working Group.” MIT Press, 1996.

[3] Vesna, Victoria. “Introduction.” Space and Art. May 2022, Los Angeles, UCLA. 

[4] Vesna, Victoria. “Part 2.” Space and Art. May 2022, Los Angeles, UCLA. 

 

[5] Woods, Arthur. Cosmic Dancer. Arthur Woods’ Website, 1993. https://www.cosmicdancer.com/introduction.php

NanoTech + Art

Dealing with the Two Cultures entails a continuous effort in trying to radically change underlying beliefs or theories of our society. Depending on the different sciences and arts involved, this quest for a paradigm shift is carried out at different rates. While focusing on this week’s lectures, I realized why nanotechnologies represent “what is going to push over the edge into the future” [1]. Nanotechnologies are stimulating scientific innovations able to walk us into a “new generation of materials that are stronger, smaller, cleaner, and smarter than anything we've ever seen” [2]. 

Scanning Tunneling Microscope

Although the domain that comes with nanotechnologies might seem out of reach and complicated, “nanotechnology is more common than one may think - from the food we eat to the clothes we wear, nanotechnology is already all around us, we simply are not aware of it” [3]. 

Nanomandala 

Aside from nanotechnology’s presence in our every day lives, its applications in the world of arts are as remarkable, as they represent the latest attempt to bridge the Two Cultures. In the context of the artistic applications of nanotechnologies, I was particularly struck by Victoria Vesna’s and James Gimszewkski’s Nanomandala [4]. Nanomandala consists of a 15min video projected onto a disk of sand, 8 feet in diameter. Visitors touch the sand as oscillating images of the molecular structure of a single grain of sand obtained via a scanning electron microscope (SEM). These images are projected to reveal the recognizable image of the complete mandala, and then back again. This coming together of art, science and technology is a modern interpretation of an ancient tradition that consecrates the planet and its inhabitants to bring about purification and healing.

Possibly the Third Culture

This installation was a further proof that Nanoscale Science and Media 

Art are powerful synergies that can promulgate the 21st century emergence of a new Third Culture, “embracing biologically inspired shifts, new aesthetics and definitions” [5]. 

References: 

[1] Vesna, Victoria. “Introduction.” Nanotechnology and Art. May 2022, Los Angeles, UCLA. 

[2] Pogue, David. “Nova: Making Things Smaller.” PBS. January 26, 2011.

[3] Gimzewski, James K. “Part 6.” Nanotechnology and Art. May 2022, Los Angeles, UCLA. 

[4] J. Gimzewski and V. Vesna. Nanomandala. Department of Design|Media Arts, November 16, 2004.

[5] J. Gimzewski and V. Vesna. “The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of fact and fiction in the construction of new science.” Technoetic Arts, vol.1, pp.2-17, 2003.

Neuroscience + Art

“Neuroscientific knowledge is not solely constrained within laboratories, but readily captures the attention of the public at large” [1]. I wanted to start off with this extract from the article “Neuroculture” because it perfectly encapsulates the shared thesis that ideas, concepts and images in neuroscience widely circulate in culture and are portrayed in literature, film, artworks, the mass media and commercial products, therefore shaping social values and consumer practices. The writers of “Neuroculture", Frazzetta and Anker, are also responsible for the foundation go the Neuroculture Project [2]. The latter aims at examining how modern brain science has penetrated popular culture, eventually leading to Christopher Decharms affirmation that our generation will be the pioneers of inner space. In other words, the next frontier of research and voyage is already within us [3]. 

Since the arts go concurrently with the sciences, scientific researches constitute artworks by definition. Brainbow embodies precisely this: a scientific method that is intrinsically considered art. Brainbow is the process by which individual neurons in the brain can be distinguished from neighboring neurons using fluorescent proteins. The result is a colorful palette of neurons that has been a major contribution to the field of connectonics, aka the study of neural connections in the brain. 

Brainbow

Another example of the empirical collaboration between neuroscience and art is Victoria Vesna’s Octopus Brainstorming. In 2016, artist Victoria Vesna collaborated with scientist Mark S. Cohen on staging Octopus Brainstorming, a performative installation based on electroencephalography (EEG) technology. The work explores a long-lasting philosophical dilemma concerning humans’ ability to envision the experience of other sentient beings. Two participants wore octopus-shaped crowns with dangling arms while their brainwave rhythms were made visible to the audience through colored lights and sounds. When participants entered a meditative state, the visual and acoustic signals synchronized to indicate mental attunement [4]. 

Victoria Vesna's Octopus Brainstorming 

Finally, as the American rock band, The Amygdaloids, suggests in the lyrics of the song Fearing, art is a way of expressing and exposing the secret of neuroscience in order to escape the “full psychic assault” of our minds [5]. By rendering visible invisible phenomena, such as thought and consciousness, art is connected to neuroscience, in yet another example of the merging of the Two Cultures. 

The Amygdaloids

References 

[1] Frazzetta, Giovanni & Anker, Suzanne. “Neuroculture”, Macmillan Publishers, Volume 10, 815-819, 2009. 

[2] Vesna, Victoria. “Part 1.” Neuroscience and Art. Biotechnology and Art, May 2022, Los Angeles, UCLA.

[3] Decharms, Christopher. “A look inside the brain in real time”, TedTalk, 03.33, 2008. 

[4] Albu, Cristina. “Planetary Re-Enchantment: Human-Animal Entanglements in Victoria Vesna’s Octopus Brainstorming”, Simon Fraser University, 2016. https://www.sfu.ca/cmajournal/issues/issue-ten--enchantment--disenchantment--reenchantment/cristina-albu.html?fbclid=IwAR1twyrqbeKqNrJSUXSihLVGvX_D9ARndxDv3USnw2pTENE_iXHJtIo8v54

[5] The Amygdaloids. Fearing, 2010. 

Poetic Realities

Today I attended the MFA Annual Exhibition, Poetic Realities. Although I truthfully had little no knowledge of the reasoning behind some of the artworks exposed, I was able to fully immerse myself in the context of the exhibition with intangible effort. Poetic Realities brings together the work of 10 emerging new media artists working across immersive 3D, video, sculpture and sound. The means of the exhibition are meant for guests to become one with the art, reminding Marshall McLuhan’s concept of the “medium being the message” [1]. Poetic Realities perfectly embodies the archetype of the intersection between technology and the arts. 

Gilma Berit @ MFA Annual Exhibition, Poetic Realities

Among the artists who collaborated to enhance the exhibition, I had a brief talk with Gilma Berit, whose piece, “The Planet Mars, 1 Million Years in The Future”, struck me particularly. Gilma Berit’s work is an attempt “to collapse time and space to engage with a target of utmost remoteness: The Planet Mars, 1 million years in the future” [2]. This piece references a real event that took place in 1984 when CIA asked a remote viewer to have a conversation with an ancient Martian. Similarly, this new work uses psychic travel to explore not the past but the future on Mars.

 

"The Planet Mars, 1 Million Years in The Future"

The mean through which this work allows us access to the future is Remote Viewing, aka Extra Sensory Perception (ESP), in other words “the ability of human being to perceive information and imagery of remote geographical targets” [3]. Using the CIA protocol, a professional remote viewer, Henry Gilroy, psychically receives information of a future-artifact on Mars that is mediated into materiality. Aside from blurring the lines “between art and science, reality and fiction, psychic phenomena and technology”, I personally see more in this piece than a quest into the past and future of humanity. After having briefly chatted with the artist I started to consider her work as her attempt to find herself, looking and seeking where nobody has ever dared to. I see myself mirrored into this idea as I’m still exploring eager to grasp what I really want to do. I might be completely off with my interpretation, but I must say that if anything this work helped me, Pietro, to have a little less blurred direction. 

MFA Annual Exhibition, Poetic Realities

Citations:

 

[1] McLuhan, Marshall Herbert. Understanding the Media. The Extensions of Men. McGraw-Hill,(1964), page 7.

[2] Berit, Gilma Gwendolyn. The Planet Mars, 1 Million Years in The Future. 2022 - http://projects.dma.ucla.edu/exhibitions/mfa2022/

[3] Srinivasan, Malur Ramasamy. “Clairvoyant Remote Viewing: The US Sponsored Psychic Spying.” Strategic Analysis: A Monthly Journal of the IDSA. Jan-Mar 2002 (Vol. XXVI No. 1), 2002. 

BioTech + Art

I would not be able to encapsulate this week’s topics and discussion points, about the intricate relationship between BioTech and Arts, without mentioning Ellen K. Levy. Through the reading of her work Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classifications, I was then able to access the weekly lectures with a different prospective. When it comes to the fusion between BioTech and Art, the understanding of the latter as a sort of panacea is, in my opinion, fundamental. Allow me to further explain myself. As Levy mentions “art, in its broadest sense, has always been a way to acclimatize the public to new scientific discoveries and new technologies”,  as a result it bridges the gap between the Two Cultures [2]. 

Adam Zarestky 

In the specific case of BioTech and Arts, this bridging action is carried out by what Eduardo Kac defines as “transgenic art”. Transgenic Art is a new art form based on the use of genetic engineering and biotechnologies to create unique living beings that constitute works of art [2]. Although I was initially really skeptical about the bio-art discourse, Adam Zalestky persuaded me to give a second chance to this field of arts by reinforcing the concept that the learning of biotechnologies is an artistic pursuit, because it displays aesthetic choices [3]. Zalestky is an artist for Symbiotica, a groundbreaking experimental group that was established in 2000 with the goal of contributing to the continuous evolution of bio-art. Similarly, Katy High, another artist who previously associated herself with Symbiotica, offers a different take on this topic. By founding the Vampire Study Group, an interdisciplinary conceptual art project, High presents a dystopic view of the future of human species, ultimately connecting her thesis with Steve Kurtz’s idea that the “human body is going to be obsolete” [4][5]. 

Transgenic Art - GFP Bunny

Personally I was blown away by this week’s topic. Digging deeper in the contents offered on Canvas I came across Mel Chin’s Revival Field project, and it struck me. The initial experiment, located at Pig’s Eye Landfill, a State Superfund site in St. Paul, Minnesota, was a replicated field test using special hyperaccumulator plants to extract heavy metals from contaminated soil. Scientific analysis of biomass samples from this field confirmed the potential of “Green Remediation” as an on-site, low-tech alternative to current costly and unsatisfactory remediation methods. Despite soil conditions adverse to metal uptake, a variety of Thlaspi, the test plant with the highest capacity for hyperaccumulation, was found to have significant concentration of cadmium in its leaves and stems [6]. This project not only has scientific and artistic value, but it also has a positive environmental effect, which might be the reason why I was fascinated by it. 

Mel Chin's Revival Field

Citations: 

[1] Levy, K. Ellen. Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classifications, Bristol and University of Chicago Press, 1-22, 2011. 

[2] Vesna, Victoria. “Part 1.” Biotechnology and Art. Biotechnology and Art, 3 May 2022, Los Angeles, UCLA.

[3] Vesna, Victoria. “Part 2.” Biotechnology and Art. Biotechnology and Art, 3 May 2022, Los Angeles, UCLA.

[4] Vesna, Victoria. “Part 3.” Biotechnology and Art. Biotechnology and Art, 3 May 2022, Los Angeles, UCLA.

[5] Vesna, Victoria. “Part 4.” Biotechnology and Art. Biotechnology and Art, 3 May 2022, Los Angeles, UCLA.

[6] Chin, Mel. Revival Field Project. 1991 - ongoing. http://melchin.org/oeuvre/revival-field/

We're All Living in the Estroworld

This morning I had the chance to virtually interact with Mary Maggic, a non-binary artist whose work can be regarded as groundbreaking. Specifically through an event called “We’re All Living in the Estroworld”, Mary Maggic introduced me to the interrelated topics of intersection of hormones, body and gender politics, and ecological alienation.

We're All Living in the Estroworld

Before this talk my stance towards these issues was remote and uninformed, thinking that, as an individual who has never struggled with his own sexuality, I was a simple spectator, a witness. This has now changed as I have understood how I am part of the alienated world Mary Maggic talks about. Part of their credo relies on the basis of a 3 step process they came up with, a process that allows us to grow and become better individuals “living in an increasingly queer world” (Mary Maggic [1]). Mary Maggic starts off wanting us to acknowledge the fact that, due to plastic pollution and high toxicity of the environment, we already live in an alien landscape. Plastic has become part of our nature as we ingest it and has reached cells of our bodies that have started a mutation process. Being conscious about this represents the first step of the process. The second step is called Semosis. As a consequence of the first step we already are alien. Mary Maggic, during this morning’s lecture pointed out how humans are in fact as malleable as plastic. The third and final step consists of the question about whether or not we want to become more alien. Mary Maggic wants us to embrace our own malleability in way that brings people together avoiding gender discrimination and inequalities. 

Mary Maggic during Zoom Event

Additionally, the artist’s interdisciplinary practice is one of socio-political excavation, “investigating the role of institutional science and biotechnology in the construction of somatic fictions and mass political imaginaries” (Mary Maggic [2]). Mary Maggic wants to escape our current patriarchal society by condemning and shedding light on modern practices of policing bodies. 

Drawing upon the concept of public amateurism and Critical Art Ensemble’s notion of “fuzzy biological sabotage,” Mary Maggic’s practice manifests through public participatory workshops and biohacking as critical sites of care, knowledge production and collaborative queerings of the status quo. Thanks to their research they were able to travel the world to further develop their ideas witnessing different realities. During this morning’s event I was particularly struck by a project Mary Maggic carried out in 2019 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, called “River Gynecology”. After observing how the native population interacts with a dangerously polluted river, that at the same time functions as a fundamental resource citizens heavily rely on, the artist reflects on the polluted landscape of the river and the local population who lives densely and intimately in its watery embrace. “While water is the medium that connects us all, it is also the primary carrier of the industrial molecules, simultaneously queering both the river and the bodies of its inhabitants” (Mary Maggic [2]). 

This made me reflect on how people live in the polluted environment as if the latter was a part of their bodies. The toxicity of the landscape does not matter when you are emotionally connected to it. As a result 

you become polluted yourself.

Bailey's Butch Queens Up in Pumps

Finally, this morning’s lecture reminded of another author/artist, Marlon Bailey. Bailey, just like Mary Maggic, investigates intersectionality, in other words the overlapping forms of oppression concerning gender discrimination. Bailey in his book Butch Queens Up in Pumps, tells us about the Black Queer Spaces in a way similar to Mary Maggic’s: people create alternative worlds through ritualized practices to escape the toxicity of our patriarchal society. 

Citations: 

[1] Mary Maggic, We’re All Living in the Estroworld, Virtual Event, 04/22/2022.

[2] Mary Maggic. https://maggic.ooo/About

Bailey, Marlon. Butch Queens Up in Pumps, University of Michigan Press, 2013. 

 

Email Confirmation

MedTech + Arts

It is fascinating to observe the parabola of the dichotomy between arts and sciences through the lenses of medicine. How technologies were introduced in hospitals only relatively recently, at the beginning of the 20th century, because of the notion of medicine regarded as an art capable of successfully being carried out exclusively by hand. Technology was seen as a hindrance that would get in the way of doctors’ “supreme” and “artistic” abilities (Vesna). Fast forward a hundred years, technology is now the medium through which art is expressed in medicine.

Depiction of Past Medical Dissection

Modern examples include the not so modern plastic surgery. Although, the latter has been around for more than 4,000 years, the wars of the previous century made plastic surgery necessary. Today, as we adopt plastic surgery almost playfully, many artists have decided to implement these practices in their artworks, trying to engage in a debate about beauty standards and ageing. French Artist Orlan, for instance, through what she defines as “carnal art”, questions the social phenomena of our time talking about how much we truly are in control of how we look.

                        Orlan while performing

Additionally, the modern connotation and domain of medicine is purely scientific. As a result scientific and technological discourse go hand in hand.

The fast-changing technology-based relationship between arts and sciences is therefore inevitable. Peter Tyson, in his article “The Hippocratic Oath Today”, conveys precisely this idea through the example of the, once binding now increasingly less so, Hippocratic Oath. The latter, through the years, has been adapted to modern needs, making many purists turn up their noses. The reality is that the Oath “is inadequate to address the realities of a medical world that has witnessed huge scientific, economic, political, and social changes” (Tyson).

Finally, this week’s topic has allowed me to further learn about the intrinsic influence of science in many artistic fields. Firstly, Ingber’s “The Architecture of Life” guided me through the concept of Tensegrity: the architectural system in which structures stabilize themselves by balancing the counteracting forces of compression and tension, giving shape and strength to both natural (our cells) and artificial forms (building and sculptures). Lastly, my compatriot, Silvia Casini, put me into a different perspective mentioning how the useful resource of Magnetic Resonance Imaging is truthfully so much more, as she defines it as technology that “has a look in the same way that the portrait has— that is, it has the capacity of being performative, thus resisting its being regarded as a transparent window onto the self” (Casini 73). 

Buckminster Fuller holds a Tensegrity Sphere

Citations: 

Vesna, Victoria. Lecture Videos Week 4. Canvas, 2022.

Orlan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlan - http://www.orlan.eu

Tyson, Peter. “Hippocratic Oath Today”. Nova, 2016. 

Ingber, Donald. “The Architecture of Life”. Scientific American Inc., 1998, page 49. 

Casini, Silvia. “Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts”. John Hopkins University Press and the Society for Literature and Science, Configurations, 2011, page 73.

Robotics + Arts

The undeniable truth concerning the relationship between robotics and art lies in the notion that technology, for better or worse, has changed our reactions toward arts. Therefore, in order to truly appreciate the merging of these two radically different but intrinsically connected domains we must think of technologies not simply as inventions which people employ to carry out artistic discourse, but also as the means by which society is reinvented” (Vesna). In other words, specifically Marshall McLuhan’s, “the medium is the message”, technology itself is the message, the art (7). 

Marshall McLuhan - "The Medium is the Message"

Walter Benjamin, in his paper “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, displays both sides of the coin, how technology can be considered as both, a threat to the authenticity and uniqueness of works of art, and an instrument through which society can absorb and be absorbed by art. 

While I initially disagreed with Benjamin’s idea that mechanical reproduction does not benefit the art being reproduced, because I believe that imitation is a form of flattery that could potentially add value to the original piece, I really enjoyed his insights in the explanation of the evolution of art, from being distant from reality to penetrating it. This transition is embodied in the dichotomy between paintings and films, between painters and cameramen. “The painter maintains in his work a natural distance from reality, while the cameraman penetrates deeply into its web” (Benjamin 3 - XI). 

Walter Benjamin

Additionally, I found Benjamin’s thesis mirrored in the artwork of the artist Gijs van Bon, particularly in his Drop of Light. This installation, originated in 2013, occupies a unique space spanning sculpture, animation, art, technology and mathematics. “In a darkened room, a succession of droplets falls from an array of nozzles six meters above. Spattering noises accompany the first flashes of light in mid-air as UV lasers hit the streams of liquid” (van Bon).

In conclusion, Van Bon’s work illustrates that robotics and arts, maths and magic, are never far removed, au contraire their relationship is destined to become increasingly closer, as Walter Benjamin said: “for contemporary man the representation of reality through and by technology is incomparably more significant than that of the painter, since it offers, precisely because of the thoroughgoing permeation of reality with mechanical equipment, an aspect of reality which is free of all equipment” (3 - XI). 

Pietro Grassi. 

Gijs van Bon's Drop of Light

Citations: 

McLuhan, Marshall Herbert. Understanding the Media. The Extensions of Men. McGraw-Hill,(1964), page 7. 

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. 2021.

Vesna, Victoria. Lecture Video 3. Canvas, 2022. 

van Bon, Gijs. http://www.gijsvanbon.nl/drop-of-light.html

Glow Eindhoven. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=drop+of+light+van+bon

Mathematics + Arts

The notion of mathematics and geometry being somehow inextricably interconnected with the world of arts was always clear to me. What I was omitting was the magnitude of the contribution of the latter. 

The new frontiers of arts are being accomplished through mathematics and geometry, which ultimately allow us to bridge the gap between the Two Cultures we mentioned last week.

This week’s lectures guided me through the myriad of applications of math to the artistic domain. Perspective, Golden Ratio, Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry are only some of the elements that have been key to the artistic production throughout history. 
Specifically the Golden Ratio represents the peak of the relationship between mathematics and arts. This approximate proportion of 1 : 1.618, is widespread in nature in an aesthetic appealing way that has induced artists and architects to take it into account in their creations. 

Piero della Francesca implemented the Golden Ratio in his masterpiece "Pala di Brera (Brera Madonna)"

Although the mathematical approach to art is indeed relevant, it’s not the only route of the craft. Creativity persists as the original value within which artistic discourse is being carried out. While mathematics and geometry per se do not leave much room for creativity, the application of them, which varies in complexity and size, needs creativity at its finest. 

Linda Henderson’s article not only shone light on the increasingly close juxtaposition between math and arts, but it also helped me tracing the origin of my thesis back to my own personal experience. Having been lucky enough to grow up in an artistic-prone environment, with my grandfather being an art critic, I have always been able to have a closer look to the artistic process behind many artists’ crafts, Valentino Vago being one of them. I was reminded of his works by this week's topic.

Valentino Vago's "A Roberto" and "Senza Titolo" 

Through the study of light and geometrical shapes he always sought to “challenge long-standing ‘truths’ about art" (Henderson 205). Although Vago didn’t even get close to the study of the Fourth Dimension mentioned in Henderson’s article, he still embodies the archetype of the fusion of mathematics and geometry and arts. Embracing the idea that a new understanding of geometry and mathematics led to the birth of abstract art, Vago started successfully implementing calculations and studies of perspective in his own works. 

Lastly, nothing encapsulates this week’s topic better than Linda Henderson’s quote that “mathematics and geometries must be regarded as something deliciously subversive in the arts”, and therefore necessary (205).

Pietro Grassi.

Citations: 

Vesna, Victoria. Lecture Video. Canvas, 2022.

Henderson, Linda Dalrymple. "The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion." The MIT Press, Leonardo: Vol. 17, No.3. (1984): 205-210.

Golden Ratio: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/dec/28/golden-ratio-leonardo-da-vinci

Piero della Francesca's Pala di  Brera: https://arsartisticadventureofmankind.wordpress.com/tag/piero-della-francescas-pala-brera/

Archivio Valentino Vago, https://www.archiviovalentinovago.it/it/

 

The Two Cultures

Hello class, my name is Pietro.

One of the reasons why you'll be reading my blogs in the upcoming weeks, is because, as David Bohm proclaims, I believe that “the creative possibilities of my mind are generally still dormant” (137). So far I have been passive with regards to the discussion of the two cultures. Using my experience at UCLA as a study case, I have not been able to build a bridge to fill the gap between science and arts. To me these disciplines represent endless possibilities I can’t quite grasp yet, and this partially explains my uncertainty in declaring a major. 
I do believe, though, in the benefits that could be produced by merging arts and sciences, by merging the “intuitive wild aspect of artistic practice and the rationality of the scientific method” (Vesna, 122). As Charles Percy Snow highlights in his 1959 lecture, the separation of humanities and sciences leads many capable minds to ignore science as a vocation and prevents society from solving the world’s main issue: the wealth gap, caused by industrialization which threatens global stability. 

Stephen Wilson, came to my rescue and helped me dig deeper into this topic. Mainly I found myself to agree with his thesis that artists’ most powerful response is to become scientists themselves, opening up enormous opportunities for the domain of the arts. Wilson also points out how this is not a 2-way street, meaning that “while there are some notable exceptions of artists influencing technological research, there is much more influence going the other way” (4). Scientists and technologists don’t believe that artists “have much to tell them about their business” (4). This reminded me of John Brockman’s counterpoint to Snow’s optimistic view of the two cultures becoming inextricably connected, according to which there is no need for trying to establish communication between scientists and literary intellectuals, whom he calls middlemen, because “scientists are communicating directly to the general public”, implicitly omitting artists’ contributions (2). 

Citations: 

Bohm, David. "On Creativity." Leonardo, 1.2 (1968):137-149.

Vesna, Victoria. "Toward a Third Culture: Being in between." Leonardo 34.2 (2001): 121-125.

Wilson, Stephen. "Myths and Confusions in Thinking about Art/Science/Technology." College Art Association Meetings, 2000, New York City.

Snow, Charles Percy. The Two Cultures and The Scientific Revolution. Vol 960. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959. 

Graham-Rowe, Duncan. "Matchmaking with science and art." Wired, 2011, UK.

  

Apple Inc. When sciences and arts meet.  

Pietro Grassi.