Week 1

Impacts of Human Overpopulation & COVID-19

      The connection between COVID-19 and different artistic forms of bioart was something I did not expect before listening to Wednesday's lecture and reading the Honors book. I slowly realized the connections that this virus has with different innovative methods of understanding and surviving a pandemic. I was very impressed to learn that different original artistic forms can be utilized to improve human health.

Week 1: Ethics during the COVID-19 pandemic

Biotechnology and Art is creating a creation that has a mix between science and art. I’ve never explored these realms so these concepts and material are very new to me. It sounded very advanced and new-age, which is why I was interested in taking the class. After the first lecture and reading the book and listening to the video provided by Professor Vensa, I realized that the realm of biotech & art has a lot of ethical complications and dilemmas.

Week 1: Art and its Expression of Biotechnology

In the world we live in today, and especially now, biotechnology and its advancement appear to be more crucial than ever before. Researchers are under constant pressure to dissect the COVID-19 virus and formulate a vaccination to halt the spread of the pandemic, while the general public anxiously awaits amidst the calls for physical distancing and constant sanitation. However, what is often overlooked in science is its portrayal to the common audience.

Week 1: Art and Us

In 2000, Eduardo Kac created a GFP bunny named Alba. This project makes me uneasy, but I cannot place my finger on why. Yes, a green bunny isn’t natural. More than that, though, is that before hearing about Alba I had heard about GFP mice used for research purposes. While the idea had made me uneasy, I quickly grew accustomed to it. In research, GFP is used to see processes that were never seen before, such as nerve development. It allows scientists to see a gene of interest, in some cases, without having to dissect an animal and visualize the tissues under a microscope (Zou).

Pollution Reduction and Vaccine Testing in Light of COVID-19

Since the initiation of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been reports of reduced air pollution in typically polluted areas due to the social distancing and shelter in place measures. Air pollution can be a potentially dangerous health environment for people, as studies have produced evidence that it contributes to early mortality. The reduction in pollution has potentially saved the lives of 4,000 children under age 5 and 73,000 adults over age 70 in China.

Week 1: COVID-19 and Art

With the COVID-19 pandemic escalating in the United States, individuals have been asked to stay at home. As a result, many people have been finding different activities to pass their time with. Art is no exception. A myriad of different people have been taking advantage of this time to immerse themselves in art, in one way or another. On the other hand, artists who rely on resources at a studio or people attending galleries are all of a sudden stuck without an income.

Art, Technology and Surveillance During COVID-19

Through this blog, I will explore how technology is being used for patient and civilian surveillance during the COVID-19 pandemic and I will analyze how an artist has responded to this reduction of privacy. 

Figure 1. Created by Prathap Ravishankar from "Post-coronavirus world; Dystopian surveillance or public empowerment?"

Week 1: Covid19: Obesity and Staying Healthy Amidst Social Distancing

This week I had the pleasure of attending our first Zoom meeting, reading the Honors book created in 2013, and watching the Intro to Biotech and Art Video. Of everything I was exposed to, I found Ms. Barbara Bensoussan's piece, "Obesity // what we can learn from industrial genetics and art," from the Honors book to personally be the most relevant to the  Covid-19 pandemic and the seemingly restrictive, but important method of safety in social distancing. 

 

Biotech & Art During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The timing of this class with the current COVID-19 pandemic is definitely an interesting one. For a class that examines the intersection between art and science, the ethical debates surrounding Biotech Art and disease are very relevant. As we saw in the Intro to Biotech & Art video, art can be used to explore biological and physical phenomenons as well as a tool to teach the public about these phenomenons.

Week 1: Inspired Bio Artists Struggle under Coronavirus Lockdown

Bio Art is the meeting point of cutting-edge biology and art. Bio Art consists of artwork stemming from manipulation of living biological material such as cells or even whole animals using biotechnological techniques. Bio Artists swap out easels and paints for living matter and tools such as genetic engineering. Many Bio Artists are inspired by the advancement of science and use their Bio Art to spark conversation on important ideas concerning ethical, philosophical, societal, and environmental considerations that emerge from these new scientific developments (Yetisen et al.).

Painting with DNA

During week 1, I attended Linda Weintraub’s lecture about eco-materialism and also got to participate in her workshops based on her book What’s Next? Eco-Materialism and Contemporary Art. Weintraub talks about how disconnected humans are with nature and how this disconnect is causing the divide that is affecting both the human race and nature in negative ways.

Week 1: Art as a Bridge Between Society and Nature

Last week I attended artist and author Linda Weintraub’s keynote lecture about eco-materialism and some of her workshops which demonstrate concepts from her new book What’s Next? Eco-Materialism and Contemporary Art. Weintraub proposes a new movement in art that involves interacting with materials and mediums in new ways. Human society nowadays is disconnected from nature, and Weintraub argues that this disconnect causes the divide is detrimental to our relation to nature.

Week 1: Eco Materialism Workshops

Last week, I attended Understanding Arts Based Research: Workshops: Work Out/ Tune-Up/ Turn On, hosted by the UCLA Art Sci Center and the department of Design Media Arts in Experimental Digital Arts in the Broad Arts Center. These series of workshop were curated by Linda Weintraub and based on chapters in her book titled “What’s Next? – Eco Materialism and Contemporary Art”.

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