ChristianLDESMA9

Medicine + Technology + Art             I grew up playing injury prone sports such as basketball, skateboarding, and football. The more time invested in sports equals a greater possibility of getting hurt, and when I was 14 that happened during football. I played Wide Receiver and was tackled awkwardly twisting my knee. Not long after I had an MRI (Mirror Resonance Imaging) appointment to check for internal damage. When I saw the images the MRI machine produces I never imaged they will be used as art. In 1998 Justine Cooper was the first to use MRI in her art that received wide public attention (Casini 74). Below is a fascinating piece by Justine Cooper called   “Reach”. The piece includes 2000 MRI scans of her hands and forearms reaching up on plexi glass. The combination of technology and medicine create a powerful objet of art. The MRI machine assembles high resolution internal images that help doctors pinpoint damaged areas below the skin. The same machine is being used to

Event one               I attended The Museum of Contemporary Art in Downtown Los Angeles. Half of the museum is featuring African American art from past to present by Kerry James Marshall. The other half is the permanent collection from the MOCA which contains post war art from a variety of artist. At first glance it was a challenge to observe the influence of math, robotics, and science in many of the paintings and sculptures. After spending some time observing the art, I was able to see past the paintings message and portrayal to see how the ideas behind the work originated from science and technology. For example, there is a piece that is quite large and has its own room called the Chromatic Fire by Thomas Hirschhorn. When walking into the room there is an attendant who gives a courtesy warning about violent graphics from war, and gang violence. The warning is much needed as some of the photography reveals true violence not exposed through mass media of decapitated

Robotics + Art             I was amazed to learn how long art and robotics have been coexisting and contributing to each other’s evolution. According to the Robotics + Art lecture by Victoria Vesna, artist have been drawing the physical structure of robots since the early 1900s that created industrialization. This machinery would become vital to mass production in many forms. One of the first successful machines prior industrialization was the printing press between 1440-1450. The creator Johannes Gutenberg was the first to mass produce the bible. The knowledge of reproduction spread and since has become a form of open source for the public. With a little knowledge and a ton of effort people started to replicate their own printing systems and other machine based items. The explosion of mass production has continued for centuries and there is no sign of it slowing down. Cars, planes, art, weapons, clothes, food, almost anything we can think of is mass produced with the help of m