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     For this event blog, I attended Rita McBride’s Particulates on April 12, 2023. This was my first time at the Hammer Museum, and I was really excited to attend this exhibit after reading up on it online. According to the description, the installation is composed of the concurrence of water, dust, and lasers (Hammer Museum 2023). When I entered the installation room, it was incredibly dark; this darkness juxtaposed the intensity of the bright green lasers. Along with this, the room was very stuffy and moist as a result of the density of water in the air and on the ground. This actually made me laugh because it made my previously straightened hair curl up immediately.      The installation is huge; the lasers dominate the room—converging to create a complex, braided assortment of light. The room is vast, and there are huge windows parallel to the installment. Compared to the concrete city outside, the exhibit poses a stark contrast. Though it exists within the room, the lasers invok

     After learning about these incredible and intriguing projects surrounding medicine and technology, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the scandal that occurred following the exposure of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. I learned about this by watching the Hulu docu-series titled The Dropout . The series stars Amanda Seyfried as Elizabeth Holmes and Naveen Andrews as Sunny Balwani. Theranos was once a company that aimed to transform blood-testing using technology that only required a small amount of blood to test for multiple health-concerns (Tun 2022). However, this company was revealed to be a fraud; the technology did not exist, despite countless investment and labor towards the product.      “The Dropout | Trailer | Hulu.” YouTube, YouTube, 7 Feb. 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7rlZLw9m10.      Though Theranos was exposed as a fraud, there are countless other examples in which medicine and technology have created some revolutionizing tools. Matter of fact, the imbricatio

              Due to the industrial revolution, labor has experienced a wave of mechanization in an effort to meet demands of a growing population and economy (Vesna 2023). Alongside this, mechanization has contributed to the growing interest and investment in the creation of AI and the cyborg. Professor Vesna defines the cyborg as the convergence of the “electronic, robotic, and biological” (Vesna 10:36).  Ex Machina (2014) is a film directed by Alex Garland that demonstrates the intersection between AI and robotics, and how this comes into play in an increasingly digital world. The premise of the film underscores the fine line between AI and human consciousness. Using the Turing test as foundation, Caleb (played by Domhnall Gleeson) must determine if cyborg Ava (played by Alicia Vikander) displays a sense of consciousness different than that of AI. This is a perplexing task that gives rise to a sense of apprehension regarding Ava and her intentions; though she has human features and

I was never into mathematics; I always struggled to wrap my head around numbers, equations, formulas. I only really enjoyed mathematics when I understood it—which was almost always after many laborious hours and many eraser marks later. It wasn’t until I took my first art class in high school that I realized how much art is contingent on mathematics and vice versa. In my high school art class, we were required to use grids and rulers to detail the space of paper before we began any assignment. Mathematics gave our art a sense of precision and refinement; there was an inherent attention to detail. I am not a good drawer, but I found that learning this and using mathematics as a tool aided in the artistic process. Crosswell, Kylie. Elephant . 11 Mar. 2019.  Note: we had to erase the grid at the end, but I promise it was there. Crosswell, Kylie. Shapes . 1 Mar. 2019.  In Professor Vesna’s lecture, she details Brunelleschi’s contributions to art and mathematics with the concept of pe

  The notion of Two Cultures has been especially prominent throughout my time in education. I have always loved writing and I have always loved science; however, these practices have consistently been connoted as opposites. Because of this, I have always felt a tug-of-war between choosing the arts and choosing the sciences. This has led me to Anthropology, for its four disciples act as bridges between the two. Nonetheless, sometimes I still feel as though it is impossible to connect the two worlds considering the ways in which curriculums here always seem to favor one or the other–which, more often than not, happens to be the sciences. Consequently, I feel as though I have been forced to sideline my pursuit in art.  Image depicting split brain, dividing Science and Art (Beadle 2020) .  That being said, I enjoyed learning about C.P. Snow’s work regarding the notion of Two Cultures. This notion is based on the polarity between the arts and sciences—which is manifested in the overarchi