VincentPeng_DESMA9

  I chose to participate in the watch party for Contagion for week 8, the 2011 film about a virus all too similar to the one we have experienced for the past year and more. The disease in the movie is also transmitted from bats in China as well, and is spread from human to human contact. terms such as "social distancing" and "quarantine", which we all have familiarized ourselves with by now, were also thrown around here and there. However, the disease transmitted in the movie was much more deadly and the resulting chaos and riots were on an extreme level. movie poster           In the context of nanotechnology, the movie brings up many ethical questions about the exploitation and selfishness involved with developments of something like a vaccine for these deadly viruses. Alan Krumweide, a character reminiscent of the recent Q-anon conspirators, spreads misinformation about a false remedy. The doctors in charge of developing the vaccine also had questio...

From last week to this week, the transition from nanotechnology on the micro scale to the extreme macro scale that is space is a big indication of the limitless boundaries of artistic and technological advancements. From rearranging things on an atomic level to planning an installation on the International Space Station, the scope of such works is a show of how our world is drastically different yet connected at the same time, and this is shown in the powers of 10 video.  scale example The guest lecture done by Richelle Gribble on her experience as an artist so far was an amazing journey to take part of through her recollection and documentation of events. Being an artist who has done almost 20 artist-in-residence programs, Richelle Gribble is definitely somebody who has seen and immersed herself in much more of the world than the vast majority. Through her practice, she shows us how limitless the exploration of art can be as she continues to take her ambitions to outer space. In h...

  This week we covered nanotechnology and the understanding and conceptualization of it that artists and scientists alike have formed on it. It was very interesting to learn about the history of the discoveries of nanomolecules, and the process that we have made since. I was never aware that there were so many kinds of nanomolecules in use in our daily lives, from antimicrobial silver molecules in our clothing to self cleaning molecules in glass as well. In the process of the technological push for progress, artists are impacted in a way through the introduction of a new medium for expression. Gallery of nanoart One thing that really intrigued me about this week’s lecture was the impact of natural phenomena on the sciences. The studies on gecko feet, lotus leaves and the blue morpho butterfly are all able to yield incredibly beneficial results in terms of researching inspired materials, such as learning more about the improvements we can make in things such as solar panels. In ...

This week’s topic of neuroscience was particularly interesting to me because of the many moral and ethical implications that come with analyzing and tampering with something like basic neurological function. I was very taken in by the long history of philosophers and doctors in their attempts to decipher the human consciousness, and did not realize that modern studies of the brain have only been ongoing for a bit over a hundred years.  When learning about phrenology, it was amusing to see the different conclusions people came up with before they had any real understanding of the human brain. In this day and age, nobody would think that bumps on one’s head would be indicative of any sort of expressible personality trait. However, this thought of separating the brain into multiple parts responsible for different things turned out to be on the right track.  The moral and ethical dialogue involving neuroscience is brought up when the thought is carried to purposes outside of pur...

  This week I attended the watch party for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the 2004 film exploring the concept of memory erasure. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a movie I have heard and seen a lot about but never really got around to watching it, and I was glad to have the opportunity to watch it for class. Though I really enjoyed the pacing of the story and the developments, I think I should write more about the connections between the movie’s fictional technological use and this week’s topic, neuroscience and art. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the female main character, Clementine, decides to willingly erase her memories after going through a rough breakup. After she receives her procedure, the male main character, Joel, meets her and is horrified that she seems to have no recollection of him. This week’s topic of neuroscience was heavily centered around the ethics of tampering and tweaking with one’s brain function, and the artform that is this movie...

This week's topic of art and biotech was a bit of a curveball for me because for the most part, I had a hard time seeing the artistic value of many of the ideas and exhibitions covered. As professor said in part four of the week 6 lectures, I feel the same that biotechnologic art seems to rely on the shock value more than anything else. My personal beliefs tend to align more with the side that questions where we draw the line. At the same time, however, this does not mean that I am entirely discounting the value of the usage of biotech in art. I just think that I am not ready yet to accept an ear grown on an arm as a form of art. ear on arm = art? With this week’s material, the one sector that I found the most interesting was the idea of transgenics and genetic modification in relation to art. The way that the artists in residence at laboratories presented their practices seemed, to me, to blur the lines between groundbreaking art and pure scientific experimentation. The artis...