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Extra Credit Post 2: Art show at UCLA (5/18/18)

My dad and I went to the art exhibit in the Art Center at UCLA. I heard of this event from my
TA and figured I’d go check out some of the art created by UCLA graduate students. I was
pleasantly surprised by how closely related the art in the gallery was to the information we are
learning in class. Some pieces of art used actual materials from machines or other technology,
such as a military jacket, and others used different technological mediums to depict their art such
as animation, video projection, virtual reality, and x-ray photographs. Another connection
between art and technology this exhibit was that it seemed the some pieces of art were actually
a social commentary of the effects of technology and social media on society.
Military Jacket using wires and other machine parts
One piece that was interesting was a cloud balloon that had an animated video of two giant
people, only from the ribs up, who were sitting in what appeared to be a city made of blocks of
social media applications. These blocks are flying through the sunset sky and maybe sticking to
the people. The use of animation as a form of artistic expression has emerged in the past few
years because of technological advancement. This event actually closely relates to another
event I went to about using CGI as a new way of storytelling and form to advocate for
environmental conservation. Animation requires advanced computer technology and geometry.
Animation is a complicated medium for art because the artist must draw frame by frame the
motions while paying close attention to details such as dimensions, shading, and
perspective (Spitalnik). These art techniques used to create realistic pieces actually use
mathematical theories such as symmetry and optics in order to add depth and realism (Vesna).


video of the social media animation
This piece really caught my eye not only because of the movement and use of vibrant colors, but
the message of it really struck a chord with me. I have become more aware of how social media
and technology has taken over my life. I have become addicted with scrolling through my
newsfeed and making sure I take "artsy" pictures to post on my accounts. I do realize the detrimental
effect of my dependency on my phone and other devices and have been trying to ween myself off of it.
This video perfectly described my struggle with my phone addiction how social media is being shoved
in our faces 24/7, just like how the icons were flying towards the human figures. This too me made me
think about how there is now pressure to form an aesthetic and create a vibe of how we want the world
to see us. Human interaction is no longer real and what I see and post on Instagram no longer is a real
description of who I am; it is all filtered and plastic. I thought the use of a cloud was ironic too because
now every picture, text, or message we send is saved to the iCloud.

me with the plant x-ray photographs
Another cool project I saw were photographs of what seemed to be plant x-rays. CAT scans are a
new tool to use in art because it uses x-ray technology but the machine quickly rotates around the
subject and produced cross-sectional images, often called "slices" and that when stacked upon
one another form a 3D image of the basic structures (NIH). So by using this typically medical technology,
the artist created amazing 2D images of plant structures that showed a cool, new perspective of
the beauty and complexity of nature. I thought this was cool because we actually talked about CAT
scans and other medical technologies in week 4 of this class and it was interesting to see our
discussion of integrating medicine and art become a reality.

The use of technology as media is a very cool and new way to comment on society and show new
perspectives of seemingly common objects and paint them in a completely different way than we are
used to. Usually when I think of art, I think about the basic still-life oil paintings of people and flowers
but now, as I saw in this exhibit, the innovation and development in technology has allowed artists to
express themselves and create new points of views of nature and life. I would recommend this exhibit
to my fellow classmates because it is interesting, the epitome of this class, as well as very convenient
to attend.  

Sources:
- Spitalnik, Ilya. "Learn How to Make an Animated Video in under 10 Minutes." YouTube. Last modified March 24, 2014. Accessed May 29, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyB1Y9xkSec.

- Vesna, Victoria. “Math + Art.” Lecture 2.

- Vesna, Victoria. “Medicine + Technology + Art.” Lecture part 1. April 29, 2018.
- NIH. "Computed Tomography (CT)." National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, 
www.nibib.nih.gov/science-education/science-topics/computed-tomography-ct. 

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