Week 2: Biotech+Art and All The Feels

Unseen: The Invisible Menace

Jiayi Young harnessed the power of human bodies in order to create a scale representation of what one passenger vehicle exhausts in CO2 per year. [1] It’s so compelling to be physically dwarfed by what a single individual can contribute to the atmosphere, especially considering it’s just one small part of ones life! One thing I was  a little troubled and confused by, was that the entire structure was made using single use plastics, most notably because they're made of fossil fuels.​

 

 

 

Vera Wittkowsky asked us to choose one word to describe our relationship with our phone and I chose: burden. A few years ago, my phone was stolen in lower Manhattan. Initially I wasn’t sure what to do, however, the next morning when I woke up, I felt significantly different: I felt FREE. I didn’t associate this amazing new feeling with freedom at the time, but I’ve honestly pined for that feeling over the last few years. After a week, my family members wanted to resume being in touch with me, so I reluctantly ordered a new one. Funnily enough, two weeks later, my phone ended up being turned into the lost and found of the building which it was hijacked. Then I had two phones.​

 

Illustration from The Economist.

 

Terence Koh: Bee Chapel

I was excited that we were able to have Terence Koh come talk to us. I’m familiar with Koh from living in New York City; from what I understand, he’s pretty controversial, which I tend to gravitate toward... at least initially. Terence spoke for quite a while in a stream of consciousness and over time, I noticed a growing feeling of discomfort in me. Koh waxed poetic about love; that most people don’t think about what love really is, that love is light and God, that he knows what love is, over and over again. After a while, I began to feel skeptical about him because to me, it felt like his words were hollow. Anyone could (and many people have) said such things about love. Love equated to light and God is so common and in my opinion, barely scratches the surface of what it really is. ​

 

2 Paragraphs removed 5/5/19 because I thought our blogs were private to the internet outside our class - will discuss with Dr. Vesna.

 

Regardless of how one feels about the content of any of the workshops, they were all successful because they inspired productive thought and important discussions. In my opinion, that’s one of the most beautiful gifts that art gives us.


 

1. “Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 10 May 2018, www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle.

 

2. “Slaves to the Smartphone.” The Economist, The Economist Newspaper, 10 Mar. 2012, www.economist.com/business/2012/03/10/slaves-to-the-smartphone.

 

3. Ghorashi, Hannah. “Hive Mind: Terence Koh Transmits Names of Orlando Victims Into Space.” ARTnews, 28 June 2016, www.artnews.com/2016/06/28/hive-mind-terence-koh-transmits-names-of-orlando-victims-into-space/