Colin Squire | DESMA9

  For thousands of years, humans have used the sky as their canvas by merely connecting dots to create figures, which is now more commonly known as a constellation. Now with the development of technological advancements, artists alike are able to make out more of the mysterious sky above.  The first piece comes from Chesley Bonestell. In each piece created by Bonestell, one can tell that he was not short of imagination. One of which seems to push human perspective outside of the box. It depicts a view from Mimas, one Saturn’s moons, as Saturn emerges across the horizon. Upon the surface of Mimas are possibly space colonizers, with little white suits and bubble shaped helmets. The clarity and attention to detail makes the piece appear as if it was a photo taken. His influence “ helped popularize manned space travel” (Bonestell, About Section) throughout the mid-1900’s till his death in 1986. “Saturn as seen from Mimas,” Chesley Bonestell The next project comes from Richard Clar...

Technological advancements have made it possible to bring the materials on the nano and molecular scale visible to the human. Some of the more notable contributions of nanotech include making fuel more efficient by creating better catalysts for combustion. Nanotechnology naturally also fell into the biological field, currently being developed to dispense medication in specific areas of the body for a stronger, more efficient recovery, which is most prevalent in cancer studies. However, nanotech has also seeped into the lives of artists, utilizing it to not only create their own projects, but preserve others. The idea of having nanobots within our bodies is carefully described in The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of fact & fiction in the construction of new science, by Professors Victoria Vesna and Jim Gimzewski. In this paper, Vesna and Gimzewski write that nanotech “has taken on the sheen of authority, as one press clipping breeds another. Indeed, the nanomeme is similar the self-re...

  “The unnatural, that too is natural,” by Anna Dumitriu was a live event held to showcase her work of combining the world of biological processes and art. Throughout the event, Dumitriu covered pieces from beads that resemble antibodies that have been known to bind and process HIV, to the number of ways yeast can be stretched and its relationship with lactic acid. Her projects intrigued me due to the complex nature of the experiments being done, as well as being able to create something meaningful and in some instances, useful. “Antibody that binds to HIV Bead” (4:51), Anna Dumitriu One of Dumitriu’s earlier projects stemmed from the war time quote, “Make Do and Mend,” (Dumitriu, 8:05) which she wanted to use to explain how antibodies act in the human body. By cultivating strains of E. coli into tangible strings of fiber, she used then to repair a British woman’s wartime suit with the British insignia of the Commodity Control patch to represent and align the effectiveness of antib...

Neuroscience, as a pursuit of scientific advancement, has barely scratched the surface of the inevitable knowledge it holds. Yet, with all the it's fascinating discoveries, it seems as if artists are pushing it's known boundaries. The parallel relationship between psychology and neuroscience has allowed artists and linguists to take advantage of their work in order to leave a lasting effect on an individual. In “Swann’s Hypothesis,” D.T. Max writes that Jonah Lehrer was one of the first to notice that artists, specifically Proust, “have [ known] 1) that smell and taste produce uniquely intense memories, and 2) that memory is dependent on the moment and mood of the individual remembering” (Max, 2). The fact that this discovery was made prior to scientists solidifying it should give the impression that everyone has their foot in neuroscience.  At neuroscience and art’s most basic poi nt, the contributions of Franz Joseph Gall, and his theory of mental processes occurring the mind...

Biological advancements have been aided with the help (or sacrifice) of animals, through animal testing. Fairly common things like “ Surgical procedures, pain relievers, psychoactive drugs, medications for blood pressure, insulin, pacemakers, nutrition supplements, organ transplants, treatments for shock trauma and blood diseases,” (Science, Medicine, and Animals) have all come about as a result of animal testing. These advancements through the animals enabled many artists to explore the depths of these tests, whether it would be in the form of transplantation or manipulation of the animals’ genetic code. However, these advancements and mediums of expression have been met with protest of animal violence and ethical implications. While few of these pieces of life are relatively harmless in the eyes of the animal, like injecting a rabbit zygote with a glowing gene, or encoding the milky way onto the ear of a rat (Bio Art pt.1), the few that have drawn eyes to the field are those that har...

Contrary to popular belief, art was one of the main influences that helped with early advancements in medicine. During the Renaissance, the art of anatomy and dissection was used in order to have a complex understanding of the human physique, including specific muscle groups and how the body acted when they were contracted, as well as more accurate facial structure. This inevitably led to the understanding of the human body as a whole resulted in an evolution in our understanding of medicine. One prominent figure in both of these fields is Andreas Vesalius, a Renaissance period artist and father of modern anatomy. In Professor Vesna’s video lecture, “Medicine Pt. 1,” we learn how he used his artistic eye to catch and detail each muscle he saw on the body he was examining. His most famous reference, “Prima musculorum tabula,” was used by many Renaissance artists, and became a staple for scientific analysis. This book mixing art and science was unofficially adapted to a modern version in...