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For my first event this quarter, I attended the LASER (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous) Zoom by Hannah Landecker and Patricia Olynyk on processed foods and health.  As I have never touched on the topic of food science, and with Professor Landecker's professional background in biology, I  believe that I  have learned a lot from this event. I  would  recommend this event to others for the invaluable insights it offers.   Throughout the event, Professor Landecker delves into the topic of emulsifiers and defines the term. Emulsifiers are food additives often utilized to mix two substances that tend to separate when combined. An example  of this  is when oil and water are mixed  together  (EUFIC). The talk explored the effects of additive and highly processed foods on human health, which comprise most of our diet. I was intrigued to find that in the past, advertisements used to depict processed foods as a dependable source of vital nu...

As a psychology major, learning about different scanning technologies, especially MRI and CAT scans, plays a significant role. However, when we talk about art, the concept of medical technology has never entered my mind. An MRI machine harnesses the might of powerful magnetic field to align the magnetization of atoms within the body that utilizes its recorded information to construct an image of the scanned area of the body (Vesna). Raymond Vahan Damadian, an Armenian-American medical practitioner and inventor of the first MRI machine, has contributed significantly to the invasiveness of the human body in the practice of medicine derived from ancient times. In contrast, during the Renaissance era, artists delved into the dissection of the human body to perfectly represent its form (Vesna). However, with the groundbreaking invention of the first MRI scan, medical technologies are going in a direction where it is non-invasive, blurring the lines between science and art. As MRI started to...

     The exploration of industrialization's impact on art, film, and robotics in our lecture this week reveals a fascinating narrative of technological progression and its influence on our current society. The German philosopher Walter Benjamin states that "one might subsume the eliminated element in the term' aura' and go on to say that which withers in the age of mechanical production is the aura of the work of art" (Benjamin). Indicating that mechanical processes such as printing, photography, and filmmaking revolutionized art production, as they also challenged the authenticity and uniqueness traditionally associated with art. This phenomenon is exemplified in our current most popular AI tool, ChatGPT, which has introduced a function called DALL-E2. This AI system can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language (OpenAI). This emphasizes how people who are not artists can take as little as a few seconds to create an image that artists...

I had never thought art and math would go together. It was not until the concept of the Fibonacci Sequence and the Nautilus shell was introduced in my geometry class that I came to the realization of how abstract mathematical concepts can manifest in the stunning beauty of art. The influence of math on art and science was not merely confined to one culture or society. Like non-Euclidean geometry, the fourth dimension primarily symbolized liberation for artists (Henderson 205). We can see also in nature, as the logarithmic spiral depicts the growth and expansion of a tree, and the spiral grows as time progresses ("Fibonacci, Fractals and Financial Markets"). Geometry, nevertheless, has contributed to the creation of various forms of art, such as the golden ratio in architecture and paintings.  The Fibonacci Sequence Thousands of years ago, in ancient Egypt, the Egyptians applied the theory of the golden ratio in their design of the pyramids (Vesna, 23:00), and even in ancient ...

The concept of "two cultures" is one that I have always observed at UCLA, not just by the differences in appearance between the two sides but also by the attitudes students on campus. Unfortunately, this geographical division has ultimately led to the stereotypical emergence, perpetuating the separations of disciplines and even the separation methodologies. (Vesna)  After viewing Two Cultures Lecture Part III, I noticed the differences in the buildings on campus. The new contemporary buildings have more of a corporate structure. In contrast, the older buildings have a church-like architectural design. (Vesna) This distinguishes the north and south campuses apart, as the buildings on the south campus are more modern compared to the north campus buildings.  [ Figure 1 ] A campus divided by Nitya Tak and Noah Danesh As a psychology major, my classes are mainly located on the north campus, with some on the south. I witnessed the differences between the campuses, particularly with...