Last week in class we got the chance to look at some of the MFA students' final projects. Maru Garcia gave us a presentation of her project.
"Vacuoles" by Maru Garcia
In class last week we discussed CRISPR. I had a previous journal entry talking about CRISPR babies for the HOX Zodiac week, so some of this may be redundant, but it's also a chance to delve into this topic further.
CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, and is a powerful gene editing tool. the CRISPR sequences are transcribed in RNA sequences (crRNA), which guide the system to a complementary sequence on the target DNA. The attached Cas9 enzyme then snips the DNA at that location , shutting the target gene off.
On Thursday we held class outside and began having a discussion on nature. We went around the classroom and each person said what their own personal definition of nature was. What do you think of when you here the word "Nature"?
It got me thinking about the anthropocentric view we humans have about nature. We think of ourselves as apart from nature: Man-made vs natural.
Hello fellow students! Below is the information for ASUS and the Zine if you are interested
Link to the original website: http://artsci.ucla.edu/art-science-undergraduate-society
Information for the Spring 2019 Zine
The UCLA Art Science Undergraduate Society (ASUS) is accepting submissions for the Spring 2019 Zine.
This quarter's theme is: Nature
"XXX" by Madux Thomas Middaugh
A very interesting proposal, especially the artistic note behind embracing these materials in their failing form. I'd like to add more alternative materials.
1. Algae
Working and volunteering in the hospital, I've come to notice the vast amount of plastic that makes it to the trash every day. Even just the amount of latex gloves that I go through in a day is shocking, despite my efforts to to be as conservative as possible.
HOX Zodiac
Last week in HC 177, we went over the HOX Zodiac, an interactive art workshop and collaborative brainchild of Professor Vesna's and Siddharth Ramakrishnan, in which participants learn about the HOX gene via a commemorative dinner party dedicated to the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac.
The Art of Bread
Collective Bread Diaries
Last week in HC 177, we began a delicious new topic: The art of bread.
Featured in this discussion was the Collective Bread Diaries: A Taste of Protest, an interactive art project by UCLA artist in residence, Haytham Nawar. His work studies the complex relationship between man, machine, and bread.
CHAPTER 1: SECRETIONS
“Artistic expression via DNA”. The title of the workshop immediately piqued both the artist and biologist in me. The UCLA Broad Center was hosting a series of workshops centered on individual chapters of Linda Weintrub’s book What’s Next? Eco-Materialism in Contemporary Art, and each chapter featured a different artist.