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            Once again, this week’s lectures and resources showed how art influences and aids the progress of science, specifically in the area of medicine. Before modern technology the earliest studies of anatomy relied heavily on art. Many scientists in history have had to develop sophisticated artistic skills in order to accurately depict their research findings before the invention of modern tools such as x-rays and high definition cameras. However, once this technology was developed, this partnership between art and medical advancement became much more codependent as artists began to employ the use of medical devices such as MRIs in order to create their art. This allowed artists to examine and develop a new technique of depicting a person and redefine the concept of a “portrait”.  Previously a person’s likeness was consistently represented by an illustration or photograph of their face or body but this new technology allowed ...

This weeks lectures and readings focused heavily on how revolutionary technological advances affected the art world. In the lecture, Vesna mentions how the printing press revolutionized society because suddenly works of art and literature could recreated and mass produced with ease. Although this was hugely important step for society as a whole, in my opinion the effects it had on the art world were not as desirable. Although it increases efficiency, it destroys the value the original works of art and allows them to be copied and distributed with ease.  One movie I have seen that illustrates the issue with this is the movie Big Eyes. It followed the lives of an artist and her husband who took credit for her portraits and turned her talent and creativity into a profitable empire for himself. Her paintings were mass produced and turned into posters, postcards and other insignificant trinkets. Although this allowed the portraits to bring in a significant amount of revenue, it t...

The first event I attended was Haytham Nawar’s Collective Bread Diaries: A Taste of Protest. It featured multiple panels of machine drawn images of bread as well as a book that compiled those drawings. The drawings featured different types of bread from numerous different countries. The entire project was a statement on the importance of bread in different cultures and the role it has played in different revolutionary settings throughout history.  This installment related heavily to this week topic of robotics and art because the drawings were recreated using a machine. The artist repurposed the machine (that was previously used to intricately cut paper) so that it would move a pen meticulously around the paper to accurately recreate the images he received. It was almost mesmerizing to watch the machine, which was in the middle of the room during the exhibit, recreate the drawings so smoothly and precisely before our very eyes. I would definitely recommend this exhibit to a...

        Although the differences between math and art are more obvious, this weeks readings also illuminated the many similarities and how the two draw from each other to produce new, innovative contributions to their respective fields. One of the more prevalent uses of mathematics in art is through computer generated music. Another common application of math is in the coding involved in animation and a less obvious connection is within the artistic strategy of playing with dimension and angles to manipulate perspective and display something ordinary in a unique and abstract way. One artist that comes to mind when thinking about the connection between art and math is Picasso. Picasso aided the rise of the cubism movement in the artistic community in the early 20th century. This technique required the arrangement and manipulation of geometric figures to produce intricate characters. The way he compiles random figures in such a precise way requires numerous calcula...

piano The article “On Creativity” by David Bohm presented an interesting perspective on the intersections between arts and science and how they draw from each other to produce two distinct, but cohesive, fields of study. Although the creativity necessary for artistic endeavors is obvious, the same imaginative and innovative thinking is required to achieve new heights in the loosely defined areas of scientific exploration. The ability to successfully intertwine original thought with pre-existing knowledge and experiences is crucial for both of these areas of study as they attempt to understand and provide different perspectives on our world. neuroscience-art-prints.html In my life, the two areas of science and art have played big parts in my development and how I chose what I wanted to study here. Growing up, math and science classes regularly piqued my interest in school and led me to develop a rigid and analytical way of thinking. Outside the classroom, however, my passion...