Event 3 - Infinity Structure: Paradoxical Spaces by Robert Gero

As I walked into the room in the 5th floor of CNSI, I was intrigued by the complexity and infinity feelings of the structure created by Robert Gero. Then I walked up to him and asked him how and why he wanted to create something like this. He told me that it was actually a philosophical reason. He said that before this exhibition he wanted to speculate whether there exist some unique structures that have stable exterior and infinitely expanding interior. "It was an incredible experience and journey to imagine that" said Robert.

Infinity Structure

 I then told him that I was studying linear algebra at that time and the ideas of infinite dimensions and tuples intrigued me as well. Then we continued to discuss the complex structures in the room. I noticed that there were some pillows blended in the structures. Then I asked him why there were pillows in the structures. He told me that it was because he wanted to mix in some reality.

The pillow is to blend in some real world senses.

The exhibition was an effort to explore the practical and theoretical connection among art practice, philosophy and social architectural systems. Robert also grounded his artworks in the math and philosophy of the infinity to create this paradoxical structures. I like Robert's show a lot. It shows us how art can blend into our life and imagination. It seems like it is meaningless to create such structures but it is actually a reflection of one's mind and become something tangible and eternal.

Event 2 - Bodies // Biological, Morphological, Social and Cultural by Prof. Louis-Philippe Demers

It was an incredible experience to listen to Professor Louis-Phillippe Demers’s lecture, which took place in Broad Art center UCLA. Prof. Louis-Phillippe is an robotic artist whose expertise mainly focused on machines as media. Though he made many robotics artworks through various means, his ultimate goal is to explore psychological aspects of human beings.  Unlike many other artists, Phillippe is more interested in how audience response and react to his artworks. Therefore, he pay much attention to interaction and interface aspects of his artworks. Moreover, he believes that our bodies are the most-used interfaces for ourselves. Thus, he likes to explore perception of human motions in his artworks.

Decipher human motions into emotions.

Professor Louis-Phillippe Demer started his lecture by introducing the idea of "What makes a body?" Interestingly, there are five categories of the Body and four stages for the automata of human bodies. Five categories are the body as biological organism, phenomenological body, ecological body, social body and cultural body. Four stages are Mythic Golem, Age of clocks, Age of steam and Age of communication and control, respectively. Each stage represents a significant feature of automata during that time. Furthermore, professor suggests that we are entering into a new stage, which is the Age of social robots and hybrids. More and more scientists make copies of themselves and study the mirror of themselves to understand themselves better.

Four stages of automata of human bodies.

More interestingly, Prof. Louis-Phillippe Demers tries to explore how human brain is different from mechanical motor. He showed us a blind robot touching real person. There are also some experiments that let normal people to experience the touches of blind robots. It can even be applied to medical uses. These kinds of explorations really open up a new ground to reimagine the status of robots in our society.

Blind robot.

Further, The Tiller Girls (2010) was an dance performance made by Louis-Phillippe Demers using 32 non-intelligent but autonomous robots with 3 human manipulators. While these autonomous robots were dancing, Louis creatively produced the background music based on the frequency of the dance moves of those robots. Therefore, the outcome was incredible. People perceived these robots were dancing in a group and were intelligent while they were not. This performance ironically testify the how people perceive the difference of motor and human brains.

Tiller Girls (2010)

This lecture truly immersed me into robotics creations. I was amazed by how robotics could closely related to human emotions and perceptions. Unlike before, now when I observe a robot, I think of not only the physical aspects of the robot, but also the human-like and emotional aspects of it.

Me in the lecture.

Event 1 - "Waste Matters: You are my future" by Kathy High

To go to Kathy's show is my second time to go inside CNSI building. I didn't realize that CNSI is a perfect place for topics like art and technology until I went to Kathy's show and Robert's later. The building itself stands out among all other south campus buildings like Boelter and Charles Young Buildings. It is modern and artistically designed and more importantly, it hosts events with topics related to art and science. When I took the elevator up to the fifth floor, where Kathy's show was held, the elevator accidentally stopped for a while, as if it had traveled to another parallel space. 

Living objects in the shape of intestine and broccoli 

And it did, as I entered the room of Kathy's show, I thought I was in another parallel world. I was shocked because of not only the elevator, but also her show. I wasn't aware of what I was observing until the voice in the video that was playing in the room told me that it was people's waste. For a minute, I was not comfortable. I didn't expect to see such a dauntless art by preserving people's waste and put them on show.

Well-Preserved wastes

"Waste Matters: You are my future" is an art show to explore how waste produced by ourselves can be used efficiently. Pictures of intestine immersed with ecosystems and people were hanged on the wall and a video talking about rePOOPulate were played in the television. Suddenly, I realized that this art show was a bridge connecting ecologists, scientists, doctors and artists. By looking into human bodies and studying ecologies within the human bodies, ecologists start to explore new fields of medicine. From the video, I also learned that how bacteria functioned in our bodies. Furthermore, by researching into human body biomes, scientists can have a better understanding how we can live in different ecosystems with different bacteria, fungi and yeast.

Picture metaphor of new possibilities in ecosystems.

RePOOPulate video playing in the television.

In the end, I realized that this exhibition was a perfect connection of art and science. It was untraditional and broke new grounds. This is why art is important to science. It gives dauntless imagination and endless possibilities.

Me with Kathy's portrait