In tonight’s LASER event, I listened to five artists/scientists talk about the integration
between art and technology in their lives, research, and in history. The presentations
I found to be most interesting were by Robert Raffeatá, Maru García, and Ariel Levi Simmons.
between art and technology in their lives, research, and in history. The presentations
I found to be most interesting were by Robert Raffeatá, Maru García, and Ariel Levi Simmons.
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| Raffeatá's culture community |
In Raffeatá’s work, she studies how culture interacts with how people think about their health.
She discussed how our body is more microbe than human, in fact 90% of our body’s
composition comes from microbes. I thought her presentation was interesting because
she combined medicinal science to art and more abstract concepts of how humanity interprets
and interacts with nature which creates the environment, a variable that she claims must be included
in the study of microbiology. Her ideas of how our health is a community was something I never
heard before and to me further proved the point that medicine and art are very closely related like
we learned in week 4. She also discussed how math and art were connected, as discussed in week 2.
Instead of using math theories to create art, she used actual data to make art. Her example was
when people plug in data and numbers into the spreadsheet, often times people look for the bigger,
more important numbers that pop up but Raffeatá discussed that what actually matters is what we
are looking for and what our minds want to see. She combines these math formulas and data to form
a work of art that helps her portray the complexity of the bigger picture.
She discussed how our body is more microbe than human, in fact 90% of our body’s
composition comes from microbes. I thought her presentation was interesting because
she combined medicinal science to art and more abstract concepts of how humanity interprets
and interacts with nature which creates the environment, a variable that she claims must be included
in the study of microbiology. Her ideas of how our health is a community was something I never
heard before and to me further proved the point that medicine and art are very closely related like
we learned in week 4. She also discussed how math and art were connected, as discussed in week 2.
Instead of using math theories to create art, she used actual data to make art. Her example was
when people plug in data and numbers into the spreadsheet, often times people look for the bigger,
more important numbers that pop up but Raffeatá discussed that what actually matters is what we
are looking for and what our minds want to see. She combines these math formulas and data to form
a work of art that helps her portray the complexity of the bigger picture.
 |
| Maru's chromatography |
Maru García also talked about her personal experience between art and science. She talked
about her love for chemistry but also her awareness of how science experiments produced
images. She found ways to document her experiences through art such as using the separation
of compounds in chromatography to mimic landscapes. Another interesting thing she talked about
was how she actually used her love of art in her science experiments. She stated that the creative
process of science is art and I never thought about that before. Sometimes when designing lab
experiments, scientists have to get creative, just like artists do and they have to think of new ways
to look at the same thing. Maru also showed us pictures of how she presents her scientific findings
in creative art ways such as making a protein structure sculpture out of styrofoam or using digital
art to help visualize protein structures in 3D. My favorite part of her work was that she uses bacteria
as paint. Maru showed us pictures of petri dishes with bacteria she grew and it was actually beautiful.
She also made collages out of these microorganisms. It was cool to see actual science used as her
medium for her artistic expression. I would recommend my classmates to attend this event because
these speakers had very interesting ideas and new ways of combining art and technology. I also
will attend other LASER events because I did enjoy this event and learned a lot from it.
about her love for chemistry but also her awareness of how science experiments produced
images. She found ways to document her experiences through art such as using the separation
of compounds in chromatography to mimic landscapes. Another interesting thing she talked about
was how she actually used her love of art in her science experiments. She stated that the creative
process of science is art and I never thought about that before. Sometimes when designing lab
experiments, scientists have to get creative, just like artists do and they have to think of new ways
to look at the same thing. Maru also showed us pictures of how she presents her scientific findings
in creative art ways such as making a protein structure sculpture out of styrofoam or using digital
art to help visualize protein structures in 3D. My favorite part of her work was that she uses bacteria
as paint. Maru showed us pictures of petri dishes with bacteria she grew and it was actually beautiful.
She also made collages out of these microorganisms. It was cool to see actual science used as her
medium for her artistic expression. I would recommend my classmates to attend this event because
these speakers had very interesting ideas and new ways of combining art and technology. I also
will attend other LASER events because I did enjoy this event and learned a lot from it.
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| (left to right) John Hood, me, and Jenn |
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| Maru using bacteria as paint 1 |
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| Maru using bacteria as paint 2 |
Sources:
Stelarc. “Stelarc.” Med in Art, www.medinart.eu/works/stelarc/.
Vesna, Victoria. “Medicine + Technology + Art.” Lecture part 2. April 29, 2018.
Vesna, Victoria. “Math + Art.” Lecture 2.
Vesna, Victoria. “Medicine + Technology + Art.” Lecture part 1. April 29, 2018.
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