Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from May, 2018

Unit 8: Nanotech and Art

Nano silver particles This weeks topic caught my attention because nanotechnology is something that I  encounter in my everyday life. I found the use of nano silver to be especially interesting. Silver has been used for hundreds of years for its antibacterial properties, even before people fully understood what bacteria was. Ancient European nobilities used silver tableware as a way to prevent food poisoning. Settlers would place silver in their water and milk jugs to prevent spoilage (Nowack). Although people have been taking advantage of silver for a long time, the use of nano silver has only been present for about a hundred years, and more recently it has become popular in activewear. A nanosilver textile This is one of Lululemon's Silverscent tanktops Companies are now sewing nano silver into their garments because of its antibacterial properties. As activewear becomes more and more of a  in the modern wardrobe, the demand for high quality, longer l...

Event 2: Weak or No Signal

Checking out Stalia Grigg's movie After visiting the Weak or No Signal gallery, I was honestly feeling a little off-put and uncomfortable. I imagine if the artists were to read this they wouldn't be surprised by my feelings.  Some of the exhibits, and the showcase as a whole, left me on somewhat of a sensory overload. There were so many background noises, flickers from screens, and digital media references everywhere that I could not figure out what to focus on. I perceived it to be a commentary on the lack of rest for our minds in this digital age. There is almost no time that we are alone with our thoughts. We are constantly taking up more and more information. Some of Joveta's Cyanotypes Eli Joveta's pieces were my favorite. They were cyanotypes, which use a photographic printing process that produce cyan-blue images, commonly known as blueprints. They were absolutely beautiful. Joveta also displayed moving images (resembling those in his prints)...

Unit Seven: Neuroscience + Art

I found the discovery and prescription of now illegal psychedelic drugs to be fascinating. Upon their first encounter with LSD, it is not surprising that doctors and scientists wanted to further explore it's capabilities in aiding epidemics like depression, tendency to violence, and alcoholism. As there were no foreseeable damages to use of this drug at its discovery, it was heavily experimented with. The use of LSD was only received as a real treatment for about a ten year experimentation period before the public and most of the scientific field grew wary of its affects, although it continued to have a strong influence on 1960's counterculture. Psychedelic drugs had a massive impact on the art of this time, as much of it was inspired or in the style of the hallucinogenic state these drugs created. People were consistently trying to mimic the effects of tripping out through paintings and drawings. You can see it in the curved lines and the warped proportions, people wanted t...

Unit Six: BioTech + Art

I have never considered genetic engineering to be an art form until looking into Eduardo Kac's ideology behind his project, the GFP Bunny. As the creative leader of this transgenic piece, he publicized  the idea of using genetic engineering as a way to bring artwork to life by creating one of a kind living organisms rather than working with inanimate mediums. To create GFP bunny he inserted bioluminescent DNA into a rabbit embryo, causing the rabbit to glow under a UV light. This insertion of bioluminescent genes is a common practice in medical research, but it caused quite a stir among animal rights activists when used for an art piece. The outrage by activists was rather unmerited. Kac and his family took wonderful care of the rabbit. His goal was to expand people's definition of art to include interactive art, sometimes in the form of living organisms. Even though he considers the bunny to be an art piece, it is still in need of love, care, and social interaction. He think...