haileyessesDESMA9

A few weeks ago, I got a pretty severe concussion. It was really scary because I could not remember what had happened or basic information, and I still do not remember the 30 minutes directly after. I went to the hospital, and I received both X-rays and a CAT (computed axial tomography) scan of my head. As Professor Vesna said, X-rays are taken for granted; however, I am thankful for Wilhelm Rontgen’s invention. These technologies helped ensure I was safe and healthy, and they do the same for others everyday. A photo of a chest X-ray (“X-ray: Imaging test quickly helps diagnosis) The X-rays and the CAT scan I received confirmed that my only injury was a concussion and bruising, nothing worse. I am very grateful for them. One might think that my time at the hospital was stressful and would make me more nervous; however, I felt more comfortable knowing that there were professionals making sure I was safe and secure, so I was able to relax, rather than being nervous as I was during the ca...

A screenshot including Professor Vesna, Ann McCoy, and me In the event “Alchemy + Art” with Ann McCoy, she opened my eyes to the world of alchemy. Prior to this lecture, I did not know very much about alchemy. Now, I understand alchemy and the power of tapping into one’s unconscious (“History”; McCoy). I enjoyed asking questions, listening to her personal experiences, and hearing other students’ questions, as they all provided me with a larger lens of what alchemy is. McCoy is an artist; she paints, sculpts and draws with colored pencils. She has studied alchemy since the early 1970s in Zurich and Rome. In Zurich, she worked with Professor Carl Alfred Meier, the successor to Carl Jung, a very accomplished psychologist (Fordham). McCoy works with the dream world to shape the physical world. She combines these two areas of her life through creating art conveying alchemy as a form of what occurs in one’s subconscious. A screenshot from the event of McCoy standing in front of a piece at UC...

Creativity, technology, and art are all interconnected. This week, we learned about robotics’ influence on art and how this mechanization has impacted our lives and the world, in both helpful and harmful ways. Starting almost 1000 years ago, the Chinese created the printing press, which was later invented in the West by Johannes Gutenberg in 1450, leading to the scientific method, the Renaissance, assembly line production, and the Industrial Revolution (Vesna). A photo of Frankenstein and his bride from The Bride of Frankenstein (“The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)” I thought it was particularly interesting that during the time of Micheal Faraday, a chemist and physicist known for his contributions to the field of electromagnetism, Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein (Vesna). The protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, creates life through experiments and ends up with a “monster” (Shelley). I took an English class at UCLA that was Frankenstein-themed: we read the original novel and Frankenste...

Me, Professor Vesna and Gerald De Jong I had a great time attending the Zoom event with Gerald De Jong, who was in his studio in Holland, and Professor Vesna. I enjoyed it as I did not know anything about tensegrity. I appreciated that we had the opportunity to get to know De Jong, tell him our majors, and ask questions before the recorded event began. De Jong is a freelance software builder with a background in computer science, and he created Elastic Interval Geometry, a software model, in order to work with tensegrity and spatial geometry ( David) . He uses Elastic Interval Geometry to produce tensegrity objects, which could not have been made without his software (Vesna). He was originally influenced by sculpture, and these new objects are art, connecting to week two’s theme of the convergence of math and art. Many scientists and mathematicians have influenced art and taken it to new levels (Vesna). A sphere De Jong produced using his software It was very interesting to learn abou...

While I knew art, science, math, nature and beauty all intersect, I was eager to learn more this week. Mathematicians have significantly influenced art and science, as seen through the readings, lectures and additional resources. In order to carry out an artistic vision, many times the artists need to use math. In the section, “Of the Ancient Practice of Painting” of Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions , Edwin Abbott Abbott, who refers to himself and others as different shapes, connects people to shapes, color to math, as well as math and art in creating a circle. It made me think of how creating circles in geometry with a compass greatly influences artists who wish to draw a perfect circle. Many mathematicians have impacted the fundamentals of art, creating ideas, concepts, and definitions that shape the greatest works of art. For example, in “The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion,” Linda Henderson discusses how the artist Salvador Dali explains ...

As a north campus major, I have only been to south campus in my two years at UCLA. CP Snow created the idea that there is a divide between the two cultures of science and arts and suggested that we bridge the gap (Snow). As Steven Pinker points out students should be educated in both fields (Pinker).                I'm Hailey, a second-year Communication major and Spanish minor. In elementary, middle, and high school, my education was very well-rounded. However, over the years, my education became more focused, and I had to pick a path of humanities or STEM. At UCLA, it is much different than high school where each semester was a well-rounded course load, whereas most quarters now I take different humanities and social science classes. Last year, I took an interdisciplinary science-based cluster that revolved around sustainability and food–a science and art. Although my courses do not reflect many sciences, I am still very interested in those...