samanthawDESMA9

There were many interesting topics discussed in this week's lectures. One topic that I found to be very interesting were the Brain bows. These images are visually stunning, and offer a lot of insight into the inner workings of the brain. I didn't know about brain bows before this lecture, so I looked into how these images are made and found out that transgenic mice were used to create them. This was interesting to me because it ties back in to what was discussed last week with the Biotech and Art lectures. It is interesting to see how these topics can overlap and build upon each other. The other subject that interested me was the technology discussed in the TED Talk by Christopher deCharms. The use of mri technology to train yourself to control your brain is something that sounds like it came from a movie. I was surprised to learn that this technology is being tested, and in many cases is allowing patients with chronic pain to learn how to control their brain and manage thei

This weeks topic of Biotech and Art included a lot of information about projects and work that I had no idea about. Many of the artists mentioned in the lecture worked with genetics, specifically altering the genetics of animals. I can definitely see how many people find the work these artists are doing as controversial. It seems that messing with genetics or biology has this stigma of 'playing God' surrounding it. This is understandable, since if the experiments or art being done have the potential to have absurd, or negative impacts on the animals involved. However, I find this work to be fairly interesting, as it allows us to gain insight into how genes and biology really operate, and has the potential to lead to new discoveries. I think it is important to go about this in an ethical and considerate way though. Animal testing is very controversial, and many people strongly oppose it. Yet, so many modern medial advancements were able to be developed partly because the use

For event number two I went to a local museum/gallery called It’s Showtime. This space features a large collection of antiques and vintage movie memorabilia. There were many props, cameras, and posters, as well as collectibles and other film related merchandise on display. There were a lot of robot related objects and movie posters from films featuring robots as well. This automatically made me think of the section on robotics and art. The amount of films that featured robot related storylines during the mid to late 1900s was pretty significant, and showed how culturally relevant these themes were at the time. It also sort of shows some of the widespread fears held by society. Things like evil robots, aliens, and technology gone wrong were recurring storylines in films of this time, and still are today. Some of the posters that I first noticed were the ones from the film Metropolis by Fritz Lang, and the film Blade Runner, by Ridley Scott. Both these films feature a futuristic so

Midterm Project  click link to view