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Space has always been a source of beauty for me as I love finding constellations and searching for the planets among the many stars. This weeks readings and lectures were thus extremely enjoyable as they exposed me to art by artists like B.E. Johnson of the Leonardo Space Art Project whose former job as a NASA employee cemented my faith in the fact that scientists definitely see an art-like beauty in whatever they study (LSAP). However, the second lecture by Professor Vesna opened a new perspective for me about how space and art can intersect - space exploration itself is a way of revealing celestial beauty to humans (Vesna). Johnson, B.E. Rocky Mountain High . Having taken a class on the history of science's bout with religion, Copernicus' example of being an astronomer was well known to me - but Professor Vesna talking about him while discussing space art made me rethink Copernicus and other astronomers as artists themselves. A lot of such scientists seek celestial secrets fo...

Watching Paul Rothemund's TED talk where he displayed his colorful DNA origami was a fascinating experience (Rothemund). The concept of NanoTech-based art seems to be a great next destination after last week's discussion of biotech and art. Rothemund being able to create maps using DNA seemed analogous to projects like who modified the genes of organisms to create artistic mutations.  Examples of DNA Origami created via DNA folding Liu, Huajie, and Chunhai Fan. “DNA Origami Nanostructures.” DNA Nanotechnology , 2013, pp. 207–224., https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36077-0_10. NanoTech appeals to me as creating art at the smallest aspect of organisms while still maintaining a level of complexity. There appears to be a metaphorical side to such art as stated by Paul Thomas, whose Nanoessence project showed people how the cells from their breath functioned and lived (Thomas). He believed the project was a way to connect to the biblical likening of breath and life. It would be inte...

 Christopher deCharm's TED Talk "A look inside the brain in real time" revealed to me the fascinating possibility of scientists being able to connect real-time brain activity to people's thoughts, emotions etc.  (deCharms 2008).  This made all the readings and lectures in this module all the more exciting as such technology can actually test hypotheses such as Freuds' of the two kinds of minds. Furthermore, the world of art can benefit as one can now gauge reactions extremely accurately. Imagine a focus group for a movie being studied via fMRI in order to measure their liking for the film - neuroscientists have already shown that the neural activities of small samples can be used to predict those of the population (Falk).  Scientists studying the different neural activity based on a person feeling anger or disgust It was also surprising to learn that researchers have shown that our dreams' good/bad nature can be predicted via studying neural activity and that ...

 Watching Jess Irish's short film This Mortal Plastik and hearing her talk about conceptualizing and making the film was an eye-opening experience that introduced me to facts about plastic that put several contemporary discussions in very novel perspective. The film's narration taking the form of a sort of poem was a decision that glued me to the commentary and the beautiful animated visuals. It was mind-boggling to learn that plastic was initially advertised as a way to save fauna such as elephants by offering a substitute to materials like ivory (Irish). Plastic is now considered a major killer of marine life and other animals which end up eating plastic and harming their interior organs (Krosofsky) - this change makes one wonder what current scientific tools could actually end up being harmful to life rather than remain the boons they are considered to be.  "How Plastic Waste is Killing the Oceans" by Newsweek The film seemed to present the viewers with a series of...

BioArt was an entirely novel topic for me and the works shown in the lectures were absolutely fascinating. Artists have always been fascinated with the human body both as an object in works such as sculptures and also as a artistically beautiful system itself (Getty) - Da Vinci's anatomical sketches show that the complexities of the body enamored artists (Clayton). Learning about people like Joe Davis widened my perspective on artists' admiration of biology and showed that BioArt can now involve organisms rather than just use them as subjects - reading up about him cemented my agreement with Professor Vesna deeming him a pioneer in the field (Vesna). Vitruvian Man by Leonardo Da Vinci However Joe Davis' work also raises the question of BioArt being unethical in some instances. He attempted to place the map of the Milky Way in a transgenic mouse's ear, which other than sounding mind-boggling also illuminates the risk such art places to the organisms that are used as the ...

Ann McCoy's talk on her experience with the philosophy of alchemy and its influence on her artistic endeavors was fascinating not only due to its content but also because it tore down my nascent view of alchemy merely being a physical process that a niche group of people believe in. McCoy's explanation of symbolism within alchemy was a suiting introduction to a talk about how the field is very much entwined with art. For example, she presented a picture of a vase with three colored crows which stood for the three "primes" within alchemy.  The three primes expressed via symbolism It was also interesting to hear of how she started analyzing her dreams after a professional likened a childhood dream of hers with that of an ancient philosopher's. This account reminded of the 'two cultures' discussion from Week 1 as a psychiatrist may attribute such dreams and thoughts to chemical processes and past incidents in one's life whereas alchemists took them to be ...