Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Event 3: Louise Darling Biomedical Library


As I explored the Louise Darling Biomedical Library, I was fortunate enough to come across some unique and special artifacts that are not that old when it comes to collectability.  I came across some artifacts that were a part of space and a part of human exploration of space.  The experience of human exploration of space is unfathomable.  Just by being near the possessions that were included in a space launch made myself be filled with wonder knowing I was touching something that was not within the world as we know it to be. 

Anna Lee Fisher is a UCLA graduate of Chemistry and was assigned to the 1978 NASA Group that boarded Discovery launch.  She brought with her a small handheld book written by Hippocrates himself and it was about the codes that a doctor or physician should go by when tending to patients.  She was the emergency physician on board the spacecraft, and that made her the artist’s rendition of the mix between space, medicine, and art, which are 2 different topics we talked about.  The book is a unique art piece that is classical in its medical practices, but it changes into a work of space art because it was introduced into an atmosphere that is unlike the Earths.

I also got to see a piece of a spaceship’s belly material that is made of silicone to prevent the spacecraft from burning up once it makes its descent back into the Earth’s atmosphere.  The silicone material acts as a absorbent of heat for the friction that is caused when the spaceship is trying to touch back down.  The tiles are angled in a way to fit precisely into each other and are labeled to insure a safe structure.  This is a testament to math and angles, which is included in the topic of math and art.

The collection was special for it is how space has been disturbed by human interaction.  The interaction causes fascination and it is even overwhelming to think that the objects were in space at once.  As a added greatest to Anna Lee Fisher’s legacy, she brought a UCLA banner with her up into space. Go Bruins!


Works Cited/Links

"Library Special Collections for Medicine and the Sciences (Biomedical Library)." UCLA Library. Web. 4 June 2015. <http://www.library.ucla.edu/destination/library-special-collections-medicine-sciences-biomedical-library>.

"Anna Lee Fisher." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 4 June 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Lee_Fisher>.

"Space Shuttle Questions." Physlink. Web. 4 June 2015. <http://www4.hcmut.edu.vn/~huynhqlinh/olympicvl/tailieu/physlink_askexpert/ae524.cfm.htm>.

Dunbar, Brian. "STS-51A." NASA. NASA, 18 Feb. 2010. Web. 4 June 2015. <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-51A.html>.

"Astronaut Bio: Anna Fisher (7/2014)." Astronaut Bio: Anna Fisher (7/2014). NASA. Web. 4 June 2015. <http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/fisher-a.html>.






Monday, June 1, 2015

Event 2: Fowler Museum


The most personal thing a man or woman can purchase is the house.  The house turns into the visual representation of how a man lives and what he believes in because the homeowner puts all his virtues and values into the square feet of land that he/she possesses.  The tile, curtains, carpet, decoration, all of it is a representation of how a person lives their life within the comfort of their ideals.  The exhibit presented in the Fowler Museum, Singular Spaces: From the Eccentric to the Extraordinary in Spanish Art Environments, shows this same value of personal space, but it is taken to an artistic extreme.  Jo Farb Hernández captures the art of self-taught artists in photograph and the concept of a home is changed.

The homeowners in Spain all use their own houses and yards to change their living into a continually changing art piece.  As seen in the photos, the houses are not only colored, but also decorated with religious elements that depict strong connections to the lives of those who live in the household.  The artwork correlates strongly with the lecture we had about space and art.  The idea of space as in universal and microscopic images was covered, but the use of space to create a personal connection through art is another venue with space and art.  The artists change their personal space into the ideas they have in their brain, which is the very premise of what geography is. 

The use of space and area is well done also within the self-taught artists.  In one of the artworks, the person’s house is turned into a monstrous painting.  The use of the door entrance and windows to be depicted as a mouth and the opening into the throat is a great use of space and creativity to depict what the artist wanted.  The artwork may look simple, but the premise of the art is beautiful in its nature.

Works Cited/Links


"Singular Spaces: From the Eccentric to the Extraordinary in Spanish Art Environments | Fowler Museum at UCLA." Fowler Museum at UCLA. Web. 1 June 2015. <http://fowler.ucla.edu/exhibitions/singular-spaces-eccentric-extraordinary-spanish-art-environments>.

"The Art of Geography | Bringing the Sense of Place to Life." The Art of Geography. Web. 1 June 2015. <http://www.artofgeography.com/>.

"Spaces." SPACES Blog RSS. Web. 1 June 2015. <http://www.spacesarchives.org/blog/author/jo-farb-hernandez/>.

Hernandez, Jo. "Art Environments: Curatorial Roles and Responsibilities." YouTube. YouTube, 28 Apr. 2015. Web. 1 June 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKvXyOnI6MM>.

Teeuwen, Marjan. "Abandoned Buildings Turned Into Incredible Art Installations." Inhabitat. Web. 1 June 2015. <http://inhabitat.com/abandoned-buildings-turned-into-incredible-art-installations-by-marjan-teeuwen/>.