Benny_Van_Desma9

This week's topic was interesting me because I found that a lot of what I liked was relevant to my daily my life. As an bioengineer major, one of the main reason why I chose to pursue this field was actually because of how fascinated I was with the human anatomy. In fact one of the exhibits mentioned in this week, Body Worlds, was a big contributor to my discovery of the human body as a topic. [Figure 1] "Body Worlds: Pulse" exhibit at California Science Center I went to the Body Worlds exhibition located at the California Science Center in 2018 as part of a club field trip. I still vividly remember the live surgery videos and all the diagrams and figures that they had. Upon further research, I learned that the exhibit contained more than 200 plastinated specimens which took a variety of forms including whole bodies, body configurations, translucent slices, and organs. [1] This was eye opening to me because I had no idea that what I was looking at was indeed real human ...

For my first event in this class, I attended a Live Watch Party for the Origami Revolution on April 6th, Tuesday of week two. This event has set the bar pretty because I was blown away by not just how far the art of folding has advanced, but also what that advancement means for technological innovation. To me, origami has always been the simple art of folding paper. I myself have learned to fold many things such as cranes, boxes, and frogs as fun pass times during my elementary school days. So when the video showed intricate artworks such as the spider by physicist Robert J. Lang, I was in disbelief that something so detailed can be made without any cutting, gluing, or the use of multiple papers. Upon further research, I learned that anyone can do it so long as they have some experience, patience, and a 40x40cm piece of foil paper [1] Figure 1. Lang's Spider Origami Instructions As I continued on through the video, my disbelief soon transitioned into astonishment as I learned about...

In light of this week's guest speaker and resources, one significant aspect about robots that I want to dive deeper is the concept of humanoid robots. The desire for a human to essentially build another human is a topic that I think really pushes the boundary of what is considered art. Much like how the invention of film permeated the painting world, I think the invention of humanoid robots would infiltrate the world of sculptures. Figure 1. Whitaker, Lyman; kinetic sculpture In the readings for this week, Walter Benjamin comments on the relationship between film and painting that I think really resonates with humanoid robots and sculptures. He compares a painter to magician and a cameraman to surgeon and explains how both of them would perform a surgical operation. The difference between the two is that a magician would conduct the surgery at a distance from reality, through magic, leaving room for interpretation. A surgeon on the other hand delves deeper into the body, and meticu...

From the lecture recordings this week, one of the most important insights I've gained was just how significant the renaissance era was for art and science. Most notably, artists like Filippo Brunelleschi, Galileo Galilei, and Leonardo da Vinci truly demonstrate how the sciences and the arts complement each other.  [Figure 1] Construction of the Florentine Duomo In the case of Filippo Brunelleschi, his design of a dome over the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral still holds the title for the world's biggest dome built with masonry. To accomplish this, with no formal engineering training, Brunelleschi came up with various innovative ideas derived from art to address engineering issues. One such idea was to lay the bricks of the dome in a herringbone pattern so that they would self reinforce itself and prevent tipping as it went up. [1]  [Figure 2] Galileo Moon Drawing Art Print In the case of Galileo, his artistic background is what helped set him apart from other astronomers. Thou...

[Figure 1] Mathematics and economics Coming in as bioengineer major at UCLA, I was surprised myself as to how significant the divide between north campus and south campus was. Not only is there a physical divide, with the segregation of the buildings, but there is a social divide as well. I remember vividly during fall quarter of freshman year, of all the murmurs and fuss about how UCLA decided to categorize business-economics as STEM. It was clear to me that the general consensus among my peers was that the business-economics major should have been reclassified. The backlash that was received, as jokingly as they may be, exemplified a prominent stereotype that nonscientists have over scientists. In Snow's book, "The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution," he points out that nonscientists tend to view scientists as brash, boastful, and unaware of man's condition. [1]  Though I can see where my peers were coming from, it made complete sense to me to re-classify bu...