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 heads, and dismembered bodies from the recent war in the middle east. while being overwhelmed by the horrific scenes from war there is a positive therapeutic ambiance floating around. The longer I stayed in the room my eyes were wandering around and viewed many geometric art pieces that are embedded alongside the other images. These images were geometric abstractions and tessellations with beautiful natural colors that emitted a good feel to help get past our history of war. Not only were these pieces mathematical influenced art, they were duplicate pieces from artist Emma Kunz. These replications of art coincide with the mass reproduction concept from robotics. The piece was created with technological help that produced the photography, duplicate art, and there was also an old television set showing soothing shapes and colors.

            As I continued my path through the museum I approached a beautiful black and white acrylic and pencil on canvas piece by Andy Warhol. The painting is very simple; it is a old telephone. The detail was amazing and it is a large painting. The image is very dominant and made me think of how a telephone has been so vital to our society. The creation of this primary plastic and metal object was in the late 1800s and was mass reproduced in the early 1900s. The old telephone is a sophisticated object that transfers sound waves through an electric current that relays the message to another phone line. This engineering was made possible by famous physicist and scientist such as Leonardo Da Vinci who discovered sound waves, and other scientist along the way. The inventor for the telephone is Alexander Graham Bell.  The artist was born in the 1928 and was raised with telephones and new inventions that emerged in the 1920s and he has seen the transformation it has experienced till his death in 1987.

Overall I had an amazing time and was happy to attend a local art museum so close to home. I recommend this museum to all students and residents from LA county. Be sure to check out the Kerry James Marshall feature because it is being held until July 3, 2017. The Museum of Contemporary Art is not primarily influenced by robotics, math, science, and technology, so as a student it is a great experience to see beyond what the artist is portraying and how the ideas originate from scientific fields. This trip provided some ideas I will consider for my midterm such as the emergence of technology and how it shaped our lives. My options are still in the air for midterms, but this event did create new ideas.