Ethan Castillo DESMA 9

For my 3rd event, I decided to attend the watch party of Contact. This movie was fantastic and fits really well with our course. This week we are learning about space and art, so it is no surprise that this movie is about space. The main character is part of a team looking for extraterrestrial life, and I personally think that is so cool! The program the main character, Dr. Ellie Arroway, works for is called SETI. Contact directed by Robert Zemeckis I was upset when they wanted to close the SETI program because they thought that nothing would come of it. I think it is absolutely crazy to think that earth is the only life in the universe. Of course there is more out there, it's just a matter of finding it. However, I was encouraged to see that they were given funding privately. And when they were allowed to continue, they found something they were looking for (prime numbers coming through the satellites). This is a perfect example of needing to have faith in the programs and people....

This week, we learned about how space and art connect with one another. Space has always intrigued me, so I was very excited to learn more about it. Although excited, the concept of space is always hard to discuss because we just know so little about it. The fact that space goes on pretty much forever is mind-boggling. Pictures of space are pieces of art themselves. I love to see this artwork of galaxies, planets, and more. Technology has progressed so far that we are able to see things through telescopes that we have never seen before. For example, the image below shows the "spiral galaxy NGC 5643 in the constellation of Lupus (the Wolf)". It was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope and is such a beautiful image.  NASA Galaxy Image Artists such as this weeks speaker, Richelle Gribble, travel around the world for their art. Gribble travels and explores different ecosystems for her artwork. She has lived in many interesting places around the globe, and her art reflects th...

This week's topic was nanotechnology and how it relates to art. Even though I knew it existed, I was still surprised to learn just how small the matter is that nanotechnology is able to manipulate. Having the capabilities to do this sort of manipulation opens up a whole field for scientists and artists to explore. Nanotechnology is even becoming more common as the technology improves and we are able to do more and more. Nano Structures Artists use nanotechnology to create different colors for their artwork. One specific use of nanotech for color is the inventions of Vantablack and Black 3.0. Vantablack is touted as the worlds darkest black. It is able to absorb 99.96 % of light when its on an object. This makes objects almost look flat because there is no light reflection. Black 3.0 is more for consumers and is also extremely black. These two paint colors can be used as more than just art, and have scientific uses too.  Vantablack covers statue and looks like black hole Nanotechnol...

This week, we explored how neuroscience is connected to art. I think that one of the best people to show the connection between these two cultures is Santiago Ramón y Cajal. Santiago made beautiful pictures that are drawings of the cells. These drawings were a game changer, and he won a Nobel prize for it. The drawings are also still used in some textbooks today. They are so beautiful that even people who don't fully understand what they are would like to hang them up as art pieces. Santiago Ramón y Cajal Drawing Another example of art and neuroscience coming together is by Suzanne Anker and Giovanni Frazzetto. They took fMRI scans and overlaid butterflies on them. The butterflies are the same on each scan, but there are different ink blots that change the way the whole image looks. It is truly beautiful to look at.  Suzanne Anker Artwork Our guest speaker this week, Siddharth Ramakrishnan, spoke about how our mind's eye is able to visualize things, but it's different for e...

I have found that bio art is one of the more interesting topics we have discussed so far this quarter. Biotech is such an important field that effects our lives on a daily basis. Before this week, I would have never considered biotech to be art. However, that has definitely changed because there are many instances that prove how art and biotech intersect. For example, Alba, a rabbit created by Eduardo Kac, had been genetically modified to glow a fluorescent green color. This takes immense skill on the scientific side of things because you are literally modifying things on a cellular level, but it also is an artistic representation of what people can do to make living things art.  Alba the glowing rabbit Using biology as a canvas to express yourself artistically doesn't just stop at fluorescent bunnies. They are also able to use biotech to modify foods, humans, and other animals. The possibilities are endless, which also brings into question whether everything they are doing is...

On May 7, I participated in the watch party for the movie GATTACA. This was such an interesting film, and I am happy I decided to choose to attend. Right from the very beginning, this movie got me thinking. The beginning talked about how the parents can essentially choose the best sperm and egg to become a "perfect" child. The main character, Vincent, was a "natural" child and his brother was one of the genetically chosen child. I feel very bad for Vincent because he was always compared to his brother and felt he wasn't goof enough. This is particularly interesting because we can pretty much do this already in real life.   This is kind of scary that a movie that was not real is starting to turn into reality.  Sperm being put into egg It is upsetting that a society would only care about someone's genetics rather than anything else. Realistically, however, this is the direction our society is headed. We have so many tests that can tell a lot about us, and I th...