Unit 9: Space and Art

Animal Sacrifice in the 20th and 21st Century

Laika, the most famous animal Astronaut
via: <https://timedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/laika.jpeg?quality=65&strip=color&w=1100>

Space is infinitely vast, yes. Space has had an influence on art, media and design, yes. But what really intrigued me this week was not those facts or 'Powers of Ten' (I rewatched this for the Nanotech + Art unit, as I found it just as fitting there as well) but rather in learning how countless animals were used, often with no intent for their safe return, in the space industry to test the safety of their space exploration equipment. Professor Vesna highlighted one very important and well known astronautical pooch, Laika, and her story, and I was then inspired to look into some lesser known animals that also went to space to help progress mankind's understanding of space exploration technologies. [1]


Here are some notable animal space pioneers:

Dezik and Tsygan, the first living space travelers.
via: <http://todocaninos.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/DezikyTsygan.jpg>

Dezik and Tsygan were the first organisms to go to space and return safely. As if going to space and returning alive wasn't amazing already, they soon after sent Dezik for another mission, where she died due to a parachute failure. [2]

The original space monkey, Albert II (What happened to Albert I you ask? Never made it to space)
via: <http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--u5FGHjg1--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/191c3e5vlgezejpg.jpg>

Albert II was the original space monkey, as in he was the first ever monkey in space. He died from the force of impact due to a parachute failure (those parachutes...). [3]

Felicette sporting her brain electrode in this signed glamour shot; her autograph is unverified for authenticity.
via: <http://sixtiescity.net/Space/Felicette.gif>

Felicette, The Space Cat, had electrodes attached to her brain which sent back valuable information about living organisms in space. [4]

This time they made custom space vests, so Belka and Strelka have a quite official looking photo
via: <http://www.dogingtonpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/belkastrelka.jpg>

Belka and Strelka were the first to orbit space and return alive. What's remarkable to me is that this time they sent a whole ark of animals: the two dogs were accompanied by a grey rabbit, 42 mice, 2 rats, flies and several plants and fungi. All passengers survived this time. [5]

These dogs had a proper space exploration; 22 whole days in orbit.
<http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lj80frpCoZ1qiwh6to1_500.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1329920596441>

Veterok and Ugolyok hit orbit and stayed for 22 days before returning safely. This is remarkable. It took another 5 years (1966 - 1971) until humans would break that record, and to this day they still remain the dogs that stayed the longest in space. Way to go V & U. [6]

Gordo here, optimistically staring far off into the distance
<http://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/34/c12-3_FINAL.jpg>

Gordo, cute squirrel monkey, was nicknamed "Old Reliable". He reached 310 miles into space and although Gordo was reliable, his parachute was not. [7]

Testing Ham's safely equipment (they finally figured out those parachutes)
via: <http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FyjDJIH4zXM/hqdefault.jpg>

Ham, the Astrochimp, was sent to pull levers to receive rewards during his flight. Researchers used this data to study decision making behaviors in space. Formerly known as No. 65, they only renamed him Ham after he safely returned to Earth because they didn't want the media covering the death of a named chimpanzee (In retrospect, a lot of these animal deaths probably wouldn't be so tragic if they were called a No. xx instead.) [8]

Not all of these animals died, but many more were killed than named here. After reading Ham's story, I realized some were never even named. But all of them suffered the unusual circumstances of going into space on experimental technology. Not by choice or for personal glory, as human astronauts have, but they were sent unknowingly as a sacrifice for mankind. Though most cultures of the world have stopped using animal sacrifices to appease the angry gods of ancient times, we still offer these animals for the glory of a new deity, technology.

References ::
[1] Vesna, Victoria, narr. “8 Space pt 3” N.p., . web. 5 Nov 2012.

[2] "Russian Space Dogs." Russian Space Dogs. Web. 31 May 2015.

[3] "First Monkey in Space." Universe Today. 31 Aug. 2009. Web. 31 May 2015.

[4] "Purr-n-Fur UK | Felicette the Space Cat, and the Mythical Felix." Purr-n-Fur UK | Felicette the Space Cat, and the Mythical Felix. Web. 31 May 2015.

[5] "Belka & Strelka: The First Dogs in Space - The Dogington Post." The Dogington Post. 25 Aug. 2014. Web. 3 June 2015.

[6] "Veterok and Ugolyok." Zoom Room Dog Training RSS. Web. 3 June 2015.

[7] Burgess, Colin, and Chris Dubbs. Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle. Print.

[8] Haraway, Donna. Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science (New York: Routledge, 1989).

Unit 8: Nanotechnology and Art

Every new fact once was fiction (and some still are).

Hypothetical Medical Nanorobots [Figure 1]
<http://www.arts.rpi.edu/~ruiz/MediaStudio/LECTURES/NANOTEC/Nanotec.htm>

After reading Gimzewski and Vesna’s “The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of fact & fiction in the construction of a new science” my mind began to parse the other materials for this unit on the spectrum of fact or fiction in an attempt to construct my own understanding of the elusive terms. [1] I came to the conclusion that many of the stories, predictions, concepts and patents brought up that reside closest to this ‘divide’ can shift between the two states depending on the scale at which we are contextualizing them.

Robot Maria (aka False Maria) from Metropolis [Figure 2]
<http://www.classicfilmtvcafe.com/2014/06/the-five-best-classic-movie-robots.html>

In “The Nanomeme Syndrome”, Gimzewski and Vesna state that “One thing is certain however – as soon as we confront the scale that nanotechnology works within, our minds short circuit.” [2] I’d like to extend this notion to our concept of ‘reality and fact’ vs. ‘fantasy and fiction’. I believe a large factor in the determination of whether a yet-to-be executed idea is non-fiction or fiction is within the time-scale context of where we place them within. Renderings for an architectural proposal, technical diagrams for a patent application and Kurzweil’s predictions of technological process fall on the “reality” side within ideas that don’t exist or haven’t occured yet. [3] On the other hand, Crichton’s Prey, Jeff Johnson’s hypothetical medical nanorobots [figure 1], and the many dystopia films of the last century fall more on the fictional side of this spectrum. Though there are multitudes of reason’s for this separation, including their own creators intentional placement in that space, another intriguing correlation in my mind is in the amount of time between the inception of the idea, and their eventual manifestations in our lives. In the science fiction novel, Valka s Mloky and the play R.U.R., where the first mentions of robots were recorded, the robots themselves were considered just as fictional as the storylines they were spawned within. [4] However, looking back now from an age where robots are a reality, the robots themselves as an idea are no longer fictitious, while the story remains so.  Perhaps it is our minds short-circuiting, trapped in a human-scale understanding of time. From this perspective we deem certain far out ideas to be fictional until the day comes that they are no longer so.

The Ptolemaic Geocentric Model [Figure 3]
<http://m.teachastronomy.com/astropediaimages/Bartolomeu_Velho_1568.jpg> 

Time does not only bring non-fiction into reality; it can also do the opposite and make what we consider fact into fiction. Many medical practices (Daffy’s Elixir), scientific ideas (the sun revolves around the Earth, figure 3), and religious doctrines (Aeneid of Virgil) that were once considered “real” have now become discredited and placed within the realm of quackery, false information and mythology. [5] [6] [7] Aristotle’s research methods (which laid the groundwork for the modern scientific method) led him to the “discovery” of a cosmological model based upon the notion that all other celestial bodies orbited the Earth. This idea lasted as a scientific fact for nearly 2000 years until it was finally disproved. [8] It is satisfying in some sense that time does not discriminate; it both proves and disproves fact and fiction. The larger the time-scale we are referencing, the blurrier this divide becomes. 

[1] Gimzewski, Jim, and Victoria Vesna. "The Nanoneme Syndrome: Blurring of Fact and Fiction in the Construction of a New Science." Technoetic Arts Technoetic Arts (2003): 7-24. Print.

[2] Gimzewski, Jim, and Victoria Vesna. "The Nanoneme Syndrome: Blurring of Fact and Fiction in the Construction of a New Science." Technoetic Arts Technoetic Arts (2003): 7-24. Print.

[3] Kurzweil, Ray. "A University for the Coming Singularity". Ted.com. Film.

[4] "Robot Definition." Robot Definition. Web. 24 May 2015. <http://www.jeffbots.com/dictionary.html>

[5] "The Delights of Daffy." Eighteenthcentury Recipes. 20 Aug. 2011. Web. 24 May 2015. <https://18thcenturyrecipes.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/the-delights-of-daffy/>

[6] "Fair Education Foundation, Inc." Fair Education Foundation, Inc. Web. 24 May 2015. <http://www.fixedearth.com/>

[7] "The Internet Classics Archive | The Aeneid by Virgil." The Internet Classics Archive | The Aeneid by Virgil. Web. 24 May 2015. <http://classics.mit.edu/Virgil/aeneid.1.i.html>

[8] <http://m.teachastronomy.com/astropedia/article/Aristotle-and-Geocentric-Cosmology>

Unit 7: Neuroscience and Art

Dreams: gifts from the unconscious to the conscious mind

I want to discuss two related topics of this weeks unit on Neuroscience and art. The segment from this week regarding the unconscious profoundly piqued my interest. I will discuss two related ideas, Jung’s ideas of the unconscious mind and creativity and his ideas on the collective unconscious. 

<http://www.globoforce.com/gfblog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Flow.png>

The ideas regarding the unconscious’ effect on creativity reminded me of the influence of improvisation and pre-cognitive creation in the arts as well as my own recent experiences of that. From bebop jazz music to 1960’s psychedelic jam bands in music to improv circles in theatre, there are many cases of improvisation, or ‘unconscious’ creations while awake, influencing or even spawning whole genres within various artforms. [1] In my interpretation of Professor Csikszentmihalyi's idea of flow (which he regards as the mind-space that improvising free jazz musicians occupy), I understand flow as utilizing both the full capacities of the unconscious as well as the conscious mind. [2] I’ve always been one for improvised music, but creating music in my dreams was an approach to unconscious creation that I hadn’t experienced before.

Interpretive painting of John Coltrane, a master of free jazz
http://royayersproject.com/wp-content/gallery/john-coltrane-art/by-leonid-afremov.jpg

About three months ago, out of the blue, I started having very vivid dreams in which I was playing an instrument. Often times it was a stringed instrument such as a guitar, sometimes it was drums or other percussion instruments, while on the occasion it would be no instrument at all; I would be making physical gestures to various environmental elements, such as the wind or rain and make sounds in that way. However, most times when I wake up from these dreams I have great difficulty remembering what I had played, but I distinctly recall the action of playing an instrument. I usually remember how things sounded (tonally, for instance that the wind had a filtered white noise quality to it) but not what I played (melodically or rhythmically).  On one occasion, a few weeks ago, I was noodling on the guitar and a very familiar melody came to me that I could not remember where I had heard before (a sort of musical déjà vu). I am beginning to suspect it is a motif I had encountered in one of my dreams. I am grateful for these strange experiences of the unconscious influencing my conscious mind, though I have yet to harness these sonic manifestations in wholly productive way.

Taemong Dreams with various Mythological and Spiritual Symbols
<http://invisibleaid.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/0/8/11084091/1392595018.jpg>

Victoria Vesna, in her discussion of the Psychiatrist Karl Jung went mentioned Jung’s idea of collective unconscious, a universal datum: "Every human being is endowed with this psychic archetype layer since his or her birth. And one can not acquire this strata by education or by conscious effort, it is innate." [2] This reminds me very much of the Korean tradition of interpreting conception dreams, or Taemong in Korean (translated literally as fetus-dream from Chinese). Taemong are dreams that pregnant mothers, or relatives close to the mother, have of the upcoming child’s birth. These dreams are interpreted for archetypal symbols, such as a tiger, boar, dragon, or apple which then create a story about the childs personality or future life path. [3] Many people become attached to the symbols of their taemong, and identify with that symbol for the rest of their life, creating a special relationship between them and that symbol. [4] Often times these taemong are intertwined with personal and family legends.  Specifically, these Taemong symbols have had a large impact on Korean mythological stories, which also remind me of Jung idea of the collective unconscious, where he states:  “In fact, the whole of mythology could be taken as a sort of projection of the collective unconscious...” [5] I'm not sure if Jung himself was aware of the ancient art of interpreting Taemong and it's effect on east Asian culture, but I suspect he would be delighted to see that it is in alignment with many of his ideas of the collective unconscious.

It has been very thought provoking for me to learn more about dreams and dream traditions, while I am in the process of constructing a personal theory for the function of dreams in my own creative practice. 

[1] Teitelbaum, Richard. "Improvisation, Computers and the Unconscious Mind." Contemporary Music Review. Print.

[2] Mazzola, G., and Paul B. Cherlin. Flow, Gesture, and Spaces in Free Jazz towards a Theory of Collaboration. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2009. Print.

[3] Vesna, Victoria, narr. “Neuroscience-pt2” N.p., . web. 5 Nov 2012.

[4] Brazeal, Mark. "Full Moon in a Jar - Taemong as an Oral Tradition of Dream Storytelling". p. 12.

[5] Brazeal, Mark. "Full Moon in a Jar - Taemong as an Oral Tradition of Dream Storytelling". p 17.

[6] "Carl Jung - Collective Unconscious." Carl Jung - Collective Unconscious. Web. 18 May 2015. <http://www.carl-jung.net/collective_unconscious.html>.

Unit 6: Biotechnology & Art

Lost in Translation: Ratio to Ordinal Categorizations

Initially, this week’s unit on Biotechnology and Art partially seemed like an extension of the last unit on Medicine, Technology and Art. Much of this was because we mentioned many of the same artists as Unit 4 such as Orlan, Stelarc, Eduardo Kac and Kathy High in addition to a few artists exclusive to this unit such as Joe Davis and Adam Zaretsky. [1] [2] [3] Another reason for this seemingly continuous experience may be stemming from a human inclination to create divisions and discrete units where clean splits do not actually exist. What most intrigued me most this week came from a realization of how difficult it is to define biotech art and their artists and more generally, how feeble any attempt is that discretizes the continuous. 

Discretizing the Continuous or how computers understand audio, etc.
<http://revolution-computing.typepad.com/.a/6a010534b1db25970b017c3755470d970b-500wi>

Categorizations seem to drive our understanding, as our brains are evolutionarily wired for it, but they also create issues in themselves. [4] Like the genres of our music, the dewey decimal system of our libraries, the pixels of our screens, the departments of our universities, and the units of our courses we often create these buckets for smaller constituents without ever questioning the divisions themselves for they provide much utility in our ease of storage, re-call and communication. [5] When our divisions fail us, we often blame the difficulty of categorization on the unit itself instead of the system. It’s much more convenient to label the thing, such as the platypus, as elusive, than unroot our entire system itself for inadequacy. 

Duck-billed Platypus saying "I ain't no duck!!!"
<http://i.imgur.com/SPpuf.jpg>

In Ellen Levy’s essay "Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Categorizations", she quotes Edward Shanken, stating that there are “biases built into current scientific methodologies. These hidden judgments often underlay acts of categorization.” [4] Much of this need for categorization, however, seems to stem not so much from a blatant attempt to impose power over the subject, but rather to formulate an understanding of how they fit together in the universe, or more specifically, the universe we construct in our minds. This seems to be built upon an assumption, however, that the universe is already cleanly arranged and our discovery is merely an attempt to find the right point of view that allows us to simply look up to reveal an underlying division from which it all folds outwards. 

Dewey Decimal Categories. The dilemma: where do the materials for this class belong?
<http://slworkshop.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Dewey_Decimal_System_Poster.jpg> 

It is simultaneously beautiful, necessary and dangerous that humans have the need to simplify the universe in an attempt to understand it. By creating these bite-sized units of life, we can package them up and digest them in our minds easily.  I believe that understanding the world discretely is a natural human bias, driven from our individualistic understanding of the world. If our consciousness were more communally driven like bees, slime molds or even siphonophores, perhaps we would be more inclined to acknowledge how even our own existence relies heavily on the multitudes of bacteria living in our guts; in fact, our very bodies are comprised of 10x more bacteria than “human” cells. [5] The trouble with discrete categorizations is most apparent when trying to find a place for these very things that straddle the lines. Where should the readings for this class be stored in a Dewey Decimal based database? (see third image)

[1] Vesna, Victoria, narr. “BioTech Art Lectures Part I.” N.p., . web. 5 Nov 2012.

[2] Vesna, Victoria, narr. “BioTech Art Lectures Part II.” N.p., . web. 5 Nov 2012.

[3] Vesna, Victoria, narr. “BioTech Art Lectures Part III.” N.p., . web. 5 Nov 2012.

[4] "Are Our Brains Wired for Categorization?". ScientificAmerican. ScientificAmerican, n.d. Web. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wired-for-categorization/ >[5] " DESMA 9: Art, Science & Technology Syllabus" Uconline. Uconline, n.d. Web. <https://cole2.uconline.edu/courses/346337/pages/syllabus?module_item_id=6472119>

[6] Levy, Ellen K. "Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classifications." (2007).

[7] "What the bacteria in your gut have to do with your physical and mental health" Huffington Post. Huffington Post, n.d. Web. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/12/gut-bacteria-health_n_6480580.html>

Midterm Download Link

Midterm presentation download link:
https://cole2.uconline.edu/courses/346337/assignments/3147755/submissions/1273285?download=29148229