Week 10, section 4

Even though it's the most overused quote, I think I like it a lot: "Space, the final frontier." There are SO many visions that are conjured up when we think of space and many of them are futuristic. UFOs are always considered beings with far advanced technology when compared to our own; as mentioned in lecture, earlier views of space were the ability to do more with technology than what we have. After all, we use the words "space-age technology" to define things that are way past our abilities to create. Now that I have drawn this connection, I'm going to quickly talk about future technology and art just because it's on my mind. The future and art have a very interesting connection in that, to a large degree, artists create what people perceive to be the future of technology. Concept technologies like concept cars represent awesome future technologies and now there is such thing as a "futurist" who visualizes and estimates what the future is going to be. In the end, it takes a dreamer, an artist, to make these things while scientists are caught up doing what's already been done a little bit differently. (END TANGENT)
In the 1950's, during the atomic age, people were very interested in going to space, colonizing planets and even the moon. In the children's book at right, you can see an artist's interpretation of going to the moon. I remember, in fact, as a child, how much Star Wars' futuristic spaceships that were shaped like jets influenced my playing. I used to make Lego versions of the cruisers and fight with others but the point is that it was the media version of the future that I took to be the actual future.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the speaker for this week, but I did have the pleasure and disappointment of going to the Tesla event. I felt that there was a very well defined artistic side of the event but barely any science side. Still, I enjoyed understanding how much Tesla influenced and was influenced by art. I feel like Tesla was not really linked at all to the lady who showed her work with the electromagnet but simply used the idea of Tesla's invention in her work which I don't feel is truly relevant; there was an undercurrent of her simply trying to promote her art rather than appreciate the means to her art. However, the woman who spoke of "Resonance" seemed to have a much closer relation to him and seemed much more in touch, even though she remarked at the beginning that there was more than just Tesla in her art show. Finally, best of all, I liked the man who created Tesla coils as his work seemed closest to Tesla's, not only by the mere fact that he made Tesla coils, but by the fact that he had a purpose to help people. In other words, in making his giant Tesla coils, his goal was to ultimately simulate lightning as found in nature so as to improve the safety of vehicles. He mentioned other entertainment based applications, but this was just for the sake of funding which ultimately is another important aspect of his work. It is very likely that one will find a person who makes Tesla coils but if you ask what their reason for it is, they will tell you it is for fun or to experiment around with. None of these things are really useful to humanity and so you wonder what possible use a Tesla coil could have. It is only until you meet someone like this speaker that you actually feel how important work in the development of high voltage electronics is.
Now I'd like to speak to the affect this class has had on me, because I'm sure it is valuable knowledge to whatever TA or professor reads this. Before, I had the understanding that science and art were completely separate realms. I would get very defensive when my "artsy" friend worked on engineering based projects because I felt that an artist could not possibly know science better than I. However, as this class progressed, I started understanding that it is the artists that create dreams and the scientists that can make them happen. This doesn't mean that scientists can't dream and that artists can't advance science, but it means that everyone has a little scientist and a little artist in them, causing a varying amount of creativity and productivity. I learned from this class that these things are mixed in all areas and should be delighted in rather than feared.