Event Blog 5 Extra Credit: Dillon Bastan

June 06, 2019

Event Blog 5 Extra Credit: Dillon Bastan

            Dillon Bastan is an artist who is currently taking Professor Vesna's DESMA 90 class and for his quarter project he wanted to focus on DIY in dealing with food. During the event, he performed a demo with specific cooking instruments attached with wires that connected to his computer. He proceeded to make salads and banana shakes while these machines were producing what he called a "symphony." Apparently, after researching this further I discovered that through using MSP software, one can covert negative and positive charges emitted from certain materials to computer generated sounds. 

Some of Dillon's finished products

            To be frank, while I appreciate his initiative of working in this topic, I was quite puzzled by what he was really trying to achieve. When I had a chance to speak with him afterwards, he mentioned that he had hoped his tools would have produced a more melodious sound but that his work was still been in beta testing. He had planned to rehearse his performance, but in the end decided that he would conduct it as an improvisation. This form of spontaneous artistic expression was more meaningful to him because he said that it gives him more freedom of expression, a feeling he continuously seeks in his work. This event was an excellent example of sound art, which was the overall theme of the two day exhibition, Sound and Science 2.0. 

10cars' autumn soundbox

            Many other artists have also experimented with DIY electroacoustic instruments. One renowned example is German multimedia artist, 10cars, who made analog pedals in the shape of boxes that are covered in wires and springs. These boxes create noises that audiences claim sound wild and strange. He debuted his project at the Berlin Superbooth trade show earlier this year. He is currently selling these "autumn soundboxes" for an average price of 240 euros. Another artist, R. Stevie Moore, a former musician, is working with electroacoustic instruments and analyzing how sound and DNA relate (specifically trying to see if someone's DNA has an influence over what type of music he or she prefers). 

R. Stevie Moore

            In all, I enjoyed attending this event because I thought that it was very different from anything else I have ever seen before, but I think Dillon should approach this project next time with a little more structure. Once he has completed testing his experiment, I would recommend others to watch him perform. It is a very interesting take on sound art. 

Me attending Dillon Bastan's performance

References

“Gorgeous Electro-Acoustic Instruments Mix Sculpture and Noise.” CDM Create Digital Music, 21 May 2019, cdm.link/2019/05/10cars-electro-acoustic-instruments/.

Crezek, Dansel. “Nashville's DIY Electronic and Experimental Scene Is a Supportive and Varied Community.” Bandcamp Daily, 26 May 2018, daily.bandcamp.com/2018/05/25/nashville-diy-experimental-electronic-list/.

10cars. Autumn soundbox. Photograph. 2019. http://cdm.link/2019/05/10cars-electro-acoustic-instruments/.

Unknown. R. Stevie Moore. Photograph. 2015. https://daily.bandcamp.com/2018/05/25/nashville-diy-experimental-electronic-list/.

Bastan, Dillon. “DIY With Food.” Sound and Science 2.0, 2019, http://artsci.ucla.edu/sound/.

Event Blog 4 Extra Credit: Noise Aquarium

June 06, 2019

Event Blog 4 Extra Credit: Noise Aquarium

            On May 14th I had the opportunity to visit Professor Vesna's demonstration of her Noise Aquarium. It was clear that the project was intended to raise awareness of the growing contamination of our oceans, stressing that microplastics and noise pollution are two major factors.  

Plastic contamination on the African coast

            Recently, the United Nations released a report stating that we have until 2024 to change our behavior or else our underwater contamination issue will become unrectifiable. They moved their previous timeline up by seven years, emphasizing in the report that our ocean pollution levels have been rapidly increasing. What people have to understand is that what plankton consume ultimately makes its way up the food chain and into the food we eat. Plankton absorb the microplastics in the water, small fish consume plankton to survive, and the mammals who eat those fish, including us, absorb the leftover harmful materials. What is even more dangerous, according to the Scientific Journal, are nanoplastics. Nanoplastics are so tiny that they are essentially impossible to locate and extract. 

Plankton

            Professor Vesna said that she worked on this project over the course of 3 years, 3D scanning 8 different species of plankton and reanimating them to resemble the way they would behave in their actual environment. She made recordings of common underwater sounds, such as oil fracking, the passing of shipping boats, and fishing. Oil fracking especially poses serious problems because it can disrupt the communication between some species of fish, like dolphins. At the event, participants, including myself, would stand on a plate and move in either the X, Y, or Z direction. A plankton would appear extremely enlarged on a screen. As seen on the image below, the plankton (white blob), was surrounded in its underwater environment by floating microplastics. We would try and move in a specific way to ensure that the plankton remained "balanced in its natural habitat." After researching, I learned that plankton surprisingly have a huge impact on our environment. In fact, Dr. Timmu Yi from Cambridge University claimed that plankton are responsible for more than 80% of our oxygen. 

Plankton animation on screen

            All in all, I really enjoyed attending this event because I felt it made viewers understand that we play a role in helping to change the world's poor treatment of our ocean's. The project was a very interesting take on this topic. I would certainly recommend others to go if Professor Vesna decided to host this again. 

Me attending the Noise Aquarium

References

Agar, Robert. “Why Is Plankton Important?” Sciencing, 2 Mar. 2019, sciencing.com/phytoplankton-important-5398193.html.

Vesna, Victoria. “NOISE AQUARIUM.” The Paseo Project, 2018, paseoproject.org/portfolio/victoria-vesna/.

United Nations. “The Ocean Conference | 5-9 June 2017 Marine Pollution .:. Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform.” United Nations, United Nations, 9 May 2019, oceanconference.un.org/coa/MarinePollution.

“Nanoplastic Should Be Better Understood.” Scientific Journal, Nature Publishing Group, 3 Apr. 2019, www.nature.com/articles/s41565-019-0437-7.

Israel, Brett. “Noise Pollution from Fracking May Harm Human Health.” Phys.org, Phys.org, 12 Jan. 2017, phys.org/news/2017-01-noise-pollution-fracking-human-health.html.

Dipplo, Allie. “Dolphin Communication.” Dolphin Facts and Information, 2 Mar. 2016, www.dolphins-world.com/dolphin-communication/.

Doubek, Joshua. Plastic Contamination. Photograph. 2018. https://phys.org/news/2017-01-noise-pollution-fracking-human-health.html.

American Museum of Natural History. Zooplankton. Photograph. 2017. https://www.amnh.org/explore/news-blogs/news-posts/for-plankton-one-size-doesn-t-fit-all.

June 02, 2019 Week 9: Space and Art

June 02, 2019

Week 9: Space and Art

Sputnik

I have a personal connection to this week's topic because I actually am taking an astronomy course this quarter. That class and these last lectures showed how innovation in space would not be where it is today if certain events did not transpire. Galileo Galilei's invention of the telescope allowed astronomers to finally recognize the stellar parallax. The Cold War and the launching of Sputnik were impactful in starting the space race. From all these new inventions, people have begun to understand just how infinitely small we are in relation to the entire scope of the universe, a fact that was demonstrated in the Power of Ten video. It is this notion that has inspired so many artists to work in the realm of space art.

NASA poster

First off, I would like to mention Katie Peterson, who I discussed in my Event Blog 3. She worked with the Campo del Cielo meteorite, reconstituting it to make it look nearly identical to how it was 4.6 billion years ago, when it first formed in our Solar System. In addition, last year NASA commissioned artists to create posters inspiring people to join the race to Mars. Some marvelous-looking posters have captions that read something like "We Want You" or "Mars Explorers Wanted". Furthermore, Arthur Woods, one of the founding members of the Leonardo Space Project [1], designed what he calls his Cosmic Dancer Sculpture, which are three-dimensional geometric figures that have a unique appearance from every different angle the observer is viewing from. Lastly, on a completely different side of the spectrum, Marko Peljhan created MakroLab, which was first debuted in 1998. It was essentially a traveling lab where invited artists and scientists would stay for several days, collaborating and working together on whatever they wished. Even after the project was terminated in 2007, people continue to speculate whether this was intended to be a sculpture, work of architecture, or even an art piece at all.  

Cosmic Dancer Sculpture

As you can see, space art can take many different shapes. It is a perfect mixture of the minds of both scientists and artists, and it is this blend of thoughts that breeds new ideas. Collaboration that will continue to lead the world to discover and understand new topics. There is much to come in the world of space art. 

[1] The Leonardo Space Project was created to "investigate and promote the cultural dimensions of space activities."

References

Holmes, Kevin. “How To Melt A Meteorite: Artist Katie Paterson Is Refashioning Some Ancient Space Rock.” Vice, VICE, 27 July 2012, www.vice.com/en_us/article/wnz9nq/how-to-melt-a-meteorite-artist-katie-paterson-is-refashioning-some-ancient-space-rock.

“Makrolab.” V2_Institute For the Unstable Media, 9 Aug. 2011, v2.nl/archive/works/makrolab/.

​Science Editors. “Inspiring ‘Mars Explorers Wanted’ Posters by NASA.” Kickstarter, 7 Apr. 2018, www.kickstarter.com/projects/1607088548/inspiring-mars-explorers-wanted-posters-by-nasa.

USSR. Sputnik 1. Photograph. 1957. https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/sputnik-1-replica

Office, Eames. “Powers of Ten™ (1977).” YouTube, YouTube, 26 Aug. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0&t=411s.

Sant, Joseph. “Stellar Parallax.” The Church and Science, Scientus.org, 30 Mar. 2019, www.scientus.org/Copernicus-Stellar-Parallax.html.

NASA. Explorers Wanted Poster. Photograph. 2018. https://mars.nasa.gov/multimedia/resources/mars-posters-explorers-wanted/

Malina, Roger. “The Leonardo Space Art Project Working Group.” Leonardo Space Art Project Visioneers, spaceart.org/leonardo/vision.html.

Vesna, Victoria, narr. “Space and Art Lectures I-VI.” N.p., Web. 02 June 2019.

Manalov, Gennadid. “Cosmic Dancer - a Space Art Intervention by Arthur Woods.” Gravity And Art: Space Art Arthur Woods Cosmic Dancer, www.cosmicdancer.com/gravity_and_art.php.

Woods, Arthur. Cosmic Dancer Sculpture. Photograph. 1993. https://www.cosmicdancer.com/gravity_and_art.php