Week 4 - Medicine, Technology, and Art

           The topic of this week’s material is medicine, technology, and art. In today’s world, medicine is seen primarily as a practical, scientific-driven field used to heal, treat, and prevent disease. Upon first thought, art is seldom matched with medicine. However, Virgil Wong elegantly recalls his mother advising him that, “Medicine helps us live longer lives, but art is about why we live.” When art is combined with medicine, there is a larger focus on the individual experience, and less on data, facts, and diagnostics.

"Medicine helps us live longer lives, but art is about why we live." 

            For example, Silvia Casini takes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a powerful diagnostic technology that gives different information about structures in the body, and describes the technology in terms of the experience. Casini reflects that while in the MRI machine, she can witness her thoughts without the distraction of the outside world for ten minutes. The MRI, according to Casini, is capable of enacting a process of identity-construction and mirroring.

MRI machine. Link to picture.

            Another example of art adding a component of individual experience to medicine is Diane Gromala’s solution to chronic pain. Gromala speaks about having tried an infinite amount of medical solutions to fight her chronic pain that ultimately didn’t work. Instead, she combines computer science, media art, and design to create an immersive virtual reality to fight her condition. Her solution combines technology and art to create an experience-based solution to fight chronic pain.            

The various solution Gromala tried to handle her chronic pain. TedX Talk can be seen here.

            Virgil uses art to explain the mass amount of data that patients obtain from the doctor’s office to make diagnosis more comprehendible. Art is important to help patients understand the complicated, technical medical diagnoses and jargon so that the patients can have a greater understanding of their health.

Sources

Casini, Silvia. "Magnetic Resonance Imaging as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts."

Gromala, Diane. TEDxAmericanRiviera - Diane Gromala - Curative Powers of Wet, Raw Beauty. 2011. Video. TED TalksWeb. 27 Oct 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRdarMz--Pw>.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging. 2004. Photograph. Greene Medical ImagingWeb. 27 Oct 2013. <http://www.greenemedicalimaging.com/services/mri.html>.

Virgil , Wong. Virgil Wong and the Medical Avatar. 2011. Video. TED TalksWeb. 27 Oct 2013. <http://virgilwong.com/virgils-ted-talk-the-medical-avatar/>.

Week 3 - Robotics & Art

            Robotics in the 21^st century is a subject that is not only fascinating to today’s society, but important. In robotics, the imaginations of artists and scientists can culminate to make the ideas of science-fiction blockbusters, like iRobot, into a reality.

The 2004 blockbuster IRobot trailer.

The movie is set in the year 2035, only about 20 years from today, but how close are we to the mass production of robots? The answer is, surprisingly, not far at all. The series of TED talks in this week’s resources show that advancements in materials, mechanization, and computers are quickly accelerating the development of robotics. From Hod Lipson’s self-aware robots, to David Hanson’s robots that show emotion, robots are already infiltrating today’s industrialized era.  

The uses of robots are only limited by our imaginations. Today, sign-waving mannequins are replacing the sign spinners we often see on the corners of busy streets.

Sign waving manneqin. NPR Article

 Google has already created a prototype for autonomous cars.

Google's self-driving cars. Link

With this new era of autonomous robotics quickly approaching, it is important for society to analyze the ethics of robotics in our society.  For me, autonomous cars would largely be beneficial to society, as human errors would no longer be a major cause for the thousands of deaths caused by automobile accidents. However, the use of these cars would have huge implications to our society. The biggest impact would be that society would gain a greater trust in the autonomy of inanimate objects. From this, we would rely more and more on technology to complete the tasks humans historically have done, from babysitting, to our soldiers at war. It is important that we continue to analyze and become aware of these technologies as we experience this up and coming shift to robotics. Just as art was largely influenced by the industrial revolution, art will just as largely be influenced  and influence a robotic revolution.

Sources

Hanson, David. Robots that Show Emotion. 2009. Video. TED TalksWeb. 19 Oct 2013. <http://www.ted.com/talks/david_hanson_robots_that_relate_to_you.html>.

Hong, Dennis. My Seven Species of Robot. 2009. Video. TED TalksWeb. 19 Oct 2013. <http://www.ted.com/talks/dennis_hong_my_seven_species_of_robot.html>.

Lipson, Hod. Building "Self-Aware" Robots. 2007. Video. TED TalksWeb. 19 Oct 2013. <http://www.ted.com/talks/hod_lipson_builds_self_aware_robots.html>.

Mahal, Steve. Self-Driving Car Test. N.d. Video. GoogleWeb. 19 Oct 2013. <http://www.google.com/about/jobs/lifeatgoogle/self-driving-car-test-steve-mahan.html>.

Schmidt, Alex. "There's a New Kind of Sign Spinner in Town." 16 OCT 2013: n. page. Print. <http://www.npr.org/2013/10/16/232105767/there-s-a-new-kind-of-sign-spinner-in-town>.

Week 2 - Insights to Math and Science

          This week, we examined the juxtaposition of mathematics, art, and science. An interesting insight that I found was that math and science influences art but art can just as easily influence math and science.

          For example, the Mandelbrot set showed me how something as methodical as a simple math equation, Z = z²  + C, can be turned into art. These fractals display patterns in which a detailed representation of itself could be reproduced by “zooming” in. The idea is so systematic; that its aesthetically pleasing patterns create a sense of wonder.

The Mandelbrot Set
Picture found here 

While math can easily become art, art can just as easily become an applicable technological model. Robert Lang explained in his TED talk that origami was once an ancient Japanese paper-folding art form. However, with the advance of technology, computer codes could facilitate the transformation of single pieces of paper to complex artistic structures.

Origami facilitated with the use of mathmatical algorithms.
Screenshot from this video.

The idea of creating a complex structure from a single piece of material could then be utilized in the sciences as far reaching as medical devices to satellites in outer space. Lang transformed art to mathematics, computational algorithms, and a solution to many technological problems. The combination of Lang and Mandelbrot’s creations showed me that artistic and scientific findings do not have to be boxed into their respective worlds, but when the two are allowed to expand – even more amazing creations can be made.

          The Floating Numbers display in the Jewish Museum Berlin, seen here, further proves that science can enrich art, and vice versa, that art enhances the sciences. In this piece, the artist depicts numbers on a table via a touch-screen tabletop. When touched, the numbers display their greater meaning. 

Floating Numbers Display

This artistic piece tells the story of many scientifically significant numbers, while simultaneously; the technology enhances the experience of the viewers. Floating Numbers is neither distinctly scientific nor distinctly artistic. Imagine the piece without the technological aspect of a touch screen, or imagine a bunch of numbers on a touch screen without the artistic elements of music and design. This piece further emphasizes that the juxtaposition of science and art can be combined into a tool that enhances our creations.

Sources

 1. Alfed, Peter. "The Mandelbrot Set." (1998): n. page. Print. <http://www.math.utah.edu/~pa/math/mandelbrot/>.

2. "Floating Numbers." (2004): n. page. Print. <http://www.artcom.de/en/projects/project/detail/floatingnumbers/>.

3. Lang, Robert, perf. Robert Lang: The math and magic of origami. TED , Film. 5 Oct 2013. <http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_lang_folds_way_new_origami.html>.

4. Lang , Robert. "Science, Mathematics, and Technology." n. page. Print. <http://www.langorigami.com/science/science.php>.

5. Weisstein, Eric W. "Mandelbrot Set." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource.http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MandelbrotSet.html