Week 6 - Grace Tang

[span class="full post"] The midterm for this class was all right. I knew that the big ones such as either Stelarc or Steve Kurtz was going to be one of the topics for the essay. Interestingly I found out the parts of the themes of these two artists are against each other as I was studying for the midterm. Stelarc called the body obsolete, that it has ended its evolutionary process and cannot go on improving itself. One of the false Eves the CAE warned about in the Cult of Eve was from what I can recall the Robotic Eve. It threatens the real Eve because it separates the mind and the body. It is stated that the mind cannot be separated because that would destroy the meaning of being human.
Technology's impact on humans has been questioned for only a short while. If we do put consciousness on a robot or a machine, would it make it human and will the same rules apply to it as to us? How far would the human body have to go in robotic or cybernetic enhancements to make it not human anymore and a machine?
The first half of the quarter was good in the beginning when I was captivated by the notion of the Third Culture. Then things start to get a bit disconnected and random and irrelevant topics were thrown into lectures that did not have any transitioning from one topic to another.
I think what would make this class more interesting would be to have the students to interact more in the class. All we did was sit in lectures and discussions and scour through websites. Is there anything else on the menu?
There are two websites that center on art which I visit. Deviantart and Phirebrush. Deviantart allows for anything to be posted up online and that means satirical fan made comics of Batgirl. Phrirebrush contains a more professional community of artists. People submit their work and some of it is posted up to view. There are interviews of the artists who usually do it for a living or for part-time work. There's also some fiction and music submissions and websites linking to other interesting places on the internet. [/span]

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Christopher Flannery - Week 6 - Halfway

Overall, I have enjoyed the structure and presentation of this class. Occasionally I felt overwhelmed and confused by the diversity and number of topics covered, but by the end of each week, everything became coherent. The readings and class presentations are well aligned and clear. My only complaint is that sometimes it is difficult to write the blog because it so open-ended. I either feel like I have too many things to cover or don’t know what I could possibly write about. Perhaps we could have optional broad and guiding questions pertaining to the topic of that week so that it is easier to begin and concentrate on a topic.
I really liked all the guest lecturers, especially Professor Reas. I don’t think this class would be nearly as effective without the guest lecturers because the subject matter is so new and still developing. It’s refreshing to study something, especially art, which is current and still evolving.
I was surprised by how short the midterm felt. I had done a lot of preparing, and when I picked an image I was very familiar with it did not take long to layout an outline and fill the pages. All my real effort was beforehand, so taking the midterm was not overwhelming.
When I was discussing this class with my music professor, he loaned me a book titled “Art and Technology: A Report on the Art and Technology Program of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.” The project took place in 1967-1971 and was ultimately considered a failure to live up to its hype. Headed by Maurice Tuchman, the project sought to give the best technology of the time to the best artists in the world. The group asked for funding and donations from over 250 companies and almost 80 artists including Hans Haacke and Andy Warhol. The book documents all of their works in detail.
The project that interested me the most was research done by Robert Irwin in conjunction with IBM. Irwin used an anechoic chamber, or a room isolated from all outside noise and insulated to prevent any audio reverberations, to test the body’s responses to sound, visuals, and tactile effects in such an environment. The subject would wait in the chamber for about 15 minutes so that they were acclimated to “sensory deprivation” before the tests to the senses would begin. After the results, they also tried to discover how if the senses could acclimate and train themselves to the environment. He was aiming to learn about the effects of the length of time spent in the chamber, and visual, auditory, or kinetic stimulation on the subjects.
This project reminded me of Professor Vesna’s work which used visualizations accompanied by a minute of the repulsive sound of a cell dying and then a minute of the lovely drone of a sitar. Both aim to teach us about our own states of consciousness and the effect that the environment has on it.

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Blogging Instructions

Each week by Sunday at midnight each student must post a 500-800 word blog entry. Reflect on the questions raised in Prof. Vesna's lecture, guest lectures, and readings. Connect these concepts to self-directed research. Provide one link for each post to something you've discovered. Examples are news articles about scientific, artistic, political events etc. that relates to class topics. Images are optional but enjoyable for everyone.

Use the "Create New Post" button in your "dashboard" once you've logged in. Use the buttons above the text box to add photos, links, and text formatting.

When Posting Always...

Label your post with your section in this format (without quotes): "Section 1"
This allows your TA to find your blog posts.

Email myself or your TA if you have technical issues.
oleary@ucla.edu
xarene@ucla.edu
zblas@ucla.edu
datadreamer@ucla.edu

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