FOWLER

Kelly and me in front of the museum

I went to the Fowler Museum here on campus with my friend Kelly. We focused on the exhibit titled Making Strange: Gagawaka by Vivan Sundaram. Gagawaka is a sort of funky fashion that reminded me of the crazy outfits of pop stars like Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. However, these outfits were a little more random and made out of crazier objects.

Lady Gaga

I think that my favorite outfit was the skirt and top made of foam. I liked the happy colors and it contrasted to the other pieces which were much more drab. This outfit especially reminded me of something Katy Perry would wear.

Katy Perry

I thought that the foam outfit was fun as well. I liked that it copied the garb of an Aztec ruler.

My least favorite outfit was probably the metal silver suit. It reminded me of the street performers that cover themselves in silver paint, and the street performers scare me, so I think I may be biased.

I think it is interesting how the design of the outfits related to the materials that were used. For example, the skirt and top was bubbly and the outfit was also very round and puffy. This contrasted to the silver metal suit which was very stiff, like metal would be. The dress made of white tubes was very flowy and loose, like the flimsy tubing is in real life.

Dance Marathon at UCLA is an event to raise money to fight pediatric aids. At the event there were two girls promoting the use of condoms and they made outfits for themselves out of condoms in addition to making headbands out of condoms for the dancers.

Condom outfits from Dance Marathon

I think that the concept of using recycled materials for clothing is a good idea, especially because as a society we need to monitor our resource use. Recycling cotton is much more practical than making clothing out of sponges and condoms though. I appreciate the creativity of the artists to come up with the i designs of the outfits and which materials to use.

LACMA

I went to the LACMA with my good friend Mary. I think it is possibly the coolest museum I have been to so far, but the Hammer is a close second mostly because of the spinning chairs. One of my favorite things was seeing some of the impressionist paintings by artists that I had seen in the Getty, like Degas and the Dancers and Monet. But, I also liked all the different and non-traditional artwork as well.

One of my favorites is an abstract piece by Frantisek Kupka titled Creation. 

I loved all the colors and shading to give form to objects and shapes that are unidentifiable. It was fascinating to learn that he was one of the first painters to paint nonobjective images. It was also intriguing to learn that his paintings, but this one especially, was meant to express the spiritual and the cosmic. After learning this, it made me think of how space and art are connected in this painting, and the forms that Kupka created slightly resembled star clouds of dust and particles that are formed during star formation.

I also liked the abstract and modern art by Jacques Villon because of the fun colors. His painting titled Portrait of Mlle was fascinating to me because it hardly resembles a person.

Some other of my favorite paintings were the fun colors on huge canvases. I loved how big they were and how they could capture your attention even though the paint was relatively simple.

There were also some fun pieces of art, like the giant pool balls and the hanging rubbery yellow strands that reminded me of drying spaghetti.

When we left the museum, Mary and I took some fun pictures in front of the lights because we were trying to be #fun #trendy #la #basic.

GRIFFITH

I went to the observatory on May 24^th with my good friend Sierra. We went around dusk, which was perfect timing because we were able to see the whole city, then sunset, and also when it was dark and we could see all the stars as well as lights from the city. I was shocked at the amount of people that were there. We first walked in and went downstairs to the deep space and edge of space exhibits. Walking down, I liked the cosmic connection exhibit, which was the timeline of the universe since the big bang but displayed with jewels and broaches. It really put how little time life on Earth has been around into perspective.

            We also looked at meteorites and comets. It was fascinating to see that on the map of California there were large meteorites near my home around Sacramento and I was even more surprised to see how many there were around Southern California. I also found it interesting that there were the most meteors in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas but bordering states like Nevada, Utah and Colorado had so few comparatively because the distance between them isn’t that great. I also learned about the three main types of meteorites; Stony, Stony-Iron, and Iron.

            The exhibit on asteroids was also impressive because they are made of some of the oldest materials in the solar system and some have not even changed since they were born and then come to Earth. I also didn’t know that some asteroids are volcanically active, it is like a flying volcano shooting through the sky.

            It was also fun to play with all of the planets in the solar system and experiment with weight and gravity on each and compare them. I enjoyed the other worlds other stars section of the exhibit because I had just been learning about them in one of my other classes.

            We also explored the Hall of the Sky exhibit, which was also fun. There was an exhibit about the moon phases and a model that showed the moon rotating around the Earth overhead to better understand its phases. We also looked at the Sun’s path in the summer versus the winter and seasons in general. We also looked at lunar and solar eclipses. The overhead model that spun around in an orbit was very helpful to see how each orbit and rotation of the three objects interacted with one another to create each of the eclipses.

            We also looked at an exhibit about stars, including main sequence stars, red giants, white dwarfs, and our Sun. There was a large 3D Hertzsprung-Russel Diagram with different sizes and colors of stars to illustrate the wide spectrum of stars in our universe. The exhibit also talked about the Sun, and how its nuclear fusion makes it shine. It also discussed the lifetime of high mass, low mass and medium-mass stars from their formation until their death.

            In the same hall there was a large, colorful periodic table of the elements. It reminded me of how we are all stars because we are all made of stars. There was also a spectroscope to show the different absorption and emission lines of elements. You could compare the spectrums and conclude if there was a Doppler shift or which elements were present in a certain star. We also explored around outside and looked at the stars and skyline, which was gorgeous.

            I think that my favorite part was the Hall of the Sky. I think the most fun exhibit was the planets part of the deep space exhibit because it was the most interactive and fun to play with. The prettiest exhibit was the sky itself, at dusk, sunset, and at nighttime. The skyline of the city, the sunset over the Hollywood sign and the stars in the clear sky were all stunning.

            The whole experience was humbling, and reminds you of how small you are in the whole scheme of things, but also to be grateful for the whole universe and all that it gives us, like the pretty sunsets and stars in the night sky.

sunset over the Hollywood sign

panorama of the skyline

in front of the Observatory

confused¿

main sequence stars

earth

sierra and me on other planets

checkin out the views

bye Griffith

week 9

Space art combines nearly all of what we have covered this quarter – nanotechnology, biotechnology, math, science and art. I think the history of how space exploration evolved is fascinating with all the controversy. The discoveries that were made were also earth-shattering and completely changed the way humans viewed our planet, our solar system and our universe. For example, Copernicus’ heliocentric model and the telescope led to millions of new discoveries.

I also thought that the role of science fiction novelists was interesting in the development of space exploration. It was fascinating to learn how some of the ideas the authors had in their books were taken by scientists and engineers and made a reality, like people on the moon. The way art, science and math worked together to create something we take for granted in our everyday life now and how it has changed our reality is pretty amazing.

I also thought the discussion of how Sputnik is like art was interesting because it was purposely made so shiny and bright that people from Earth could see it in the sky with their naked eye.

I also thought that the zero gravity performances in space were fascinating. The theater performance as well as the Cosmic Dancer, a geometric sculpture that floated around the Mir space station.

Cosmic Dancer

I also enjoyed the zero gravity art that didn’t take place in space, like Denis Darzacq’s floating people and Edith Dekyndt’s Ground Control which is a massive black helium balloon.

Floating People 

Ground Control 

Works Cited

Art of Citizen Space Exploration. "Cultural Center of European Space Technologies / KSEVT." Free Enterprise. Art of Citizen Space Exploration, 2015. Web. 28 May 2015.

Ford, Kathleen. "Dancing on the Ceiling: Art & Zero Gravity Curated by Kathleen Forde : EMPAC Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center : Troy, NY USA." Dancing on the Ceiling: Art & Zero Gravity Curated by Kathleen Forde : EMPAC Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center : Troy, NY USA. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2010. Web. 28 May 2015.

KSEVT. "Cultural Space Programme." KSEVT. KSEVT, n.d. Web. 28 May 2015.

Vesna, Victoria. "Space and Art." Space and Art. UCLA, Los Angeles. 28 May 2015. Lecture.

Woods, Arthur. "Cosmic Dancer - a Space Art Intervention by Arthur Woods." The Cosmic Dancer Project : Cosmic Dancer Photos : Arthur Woods. Arthur Woods, n.d. Web. 28 May 2015.

GETTY

Megan and I and the Dancer

I went to the Getty Museum with my friend Megan and her boyfriend Matt. I had a wonderful time. The tram ride up to the top of the hill was like a ride at Disneyland, which was fun. And everyone that worked at the museum was so nice and helpful which made it enjoyable, except for one of the security people that didn’t want to take a picture with me.

The views were spectacular. Copying the sculptures and paintings like L’air was funny and fun.

L'air (#musepose)

My favorite exhibit was by far the impressionist. I loved the Houses at Bougival in Autumn by Pissarro and found it fascinating to learn that he painted with Monet and Renoir. I also loved Calm at a Mediterranean Port by Vernet and it reminded me of the Pirates of the Caribbean in Disneyland.

Houses at Bougival in Autumn

Calm at a Mediterranean Port

I loved Degas and his pastels of all the dancers. I thought it was interesting how he transitioned through different types of dance as well, from classical ballet to Russian folk dance. My favorite was the Dancer Taking a Bow, a painting of the classical ballet. 

Russian Folk Dancers

Dancer Taking a Bow (classical ballet)

I also really enjoyed his painting titled Waiting of a young dancer and an older woman. I found the contrast between the two subjects thought provoking. The youthfulness of the young dancer, the happy colors and the beauty of the ballet that she embodies compared to the dark, drab, old figure of everyday life. It is like ballet is an escape from everyday life and that escape makes it even more beautiful.

Waiting

I really appreciated the small bronze sculpture of the dancer by Paolo Troubetzkoy. The attention to detail was astounding and must have been so hard to make out of bronze. He even included fingernails on the dancer’s tiny hands. I also found the contrast interesting in this piece because the bronze and metal is so heavy but the dancer is so elegant and weightless.

Bronze Dancer

The sculptures made me think of how art and science are connected because you must be very scientific to create these pieces from metal. But even the impressionist paintings combine art and science because they create their feeling based on how your brain combines the colors and puts the image together.