Griffith Observatory

After sitting in the aftermath of the gasoline tanker truck crashing and spilling its contents across the I-5 while hoping thinking that the traffic diversions were the result of an isolated manhunt and/or car chase across LA July 13th, I eventually made it to a parking spot 10 minutes away from the Griffith Observatory.

Seriously, I thought "All this way through hellish traffic and heat,  and a hike off of the trail right next to us for ONE building?"

I came upon a scene of many, many people possibly gathering for the Star Party of both amateur and professional telescope-using astronomers that would be set later that night which I had planned on attending, but with sundown at around 8 and suggested line up at 6, I threw myself into just going through the exhibits.

This monument outside of Galileo, Copernicus,  Newton, and some other astronomical figures guard the outside of the observatory like golems ready to be activated upon alarm of space-heresy.

The main atrium of the observatory held the foucault pendulam and a painted ceiling. 

Too many people were crowding around the pendulum's description, so  "It was mesmerizing" is all that I can say.
But further research on it that it demonstrates the effect of the rotating earth on changing its swinging direction changes  that to "I wish I had stayed to watch it knock over a pin.

http://pokemon.wikia.com/wiki/Hypno

Like a Sistine Chapel of Science, filled with people I can actually possibly recognize.

For a virtual walkthrough of depictions of people I don't recognize: http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/

In one direction was a series of small dioramas of Earth phenomena like the seasons, viewable constellations, eclipses.

This showed the phases of the moon as they appear to us across a month's time.

An explanation of the gravitational influence the moon has on our oceans.

A musical interpretation of the implications of the tide.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAt1ejlO_7Q

The constellations available for viewing throughout the year as embodied by astrological signs.

Eclipses that you don't have to wait several years for.

The usage of an eclipse in the Heroes TV series logo shows how we all know that eclipses are special, especially since they are not of our own creation. Even though we know how and why they occur, we still attach stories to them and propagate their power.
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/07/16/dynamite-gets-cullen-bunn-to-reintroduce-heroes/heroes-pictured-heroes-logo-nbc-photo/
Farther to one wing of the building is a periodic table of elements.
Seriously, it HAS the elements.

You can light up different groupings of the elements i.e. metals, gases, etc. so waiting for a picture of when people stop pressing buttons whose function they have no idea besides making things pretty took quite a while.

I'd like to point out how this traditionally nerdy tool for chemists has become an art form across the internet.

If only superpowers were natural materials provided by the Earth.

*sighhhhhhhhhhhh*

http://comicsalliance.com/superhero-periodic-table-superpowers/

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/12/periodic-table-of-the-internet/

http://lotrproject.com/projects/periodictable/

Pretty soon we'll be seeing a periodic table of periodic tables.

On the other end of the building, geek culture would rejoice at this Tesla monument (especially since there wasn't an Edison one anywhere around).

I actually spent quite a while looking to see if there was a button to turn on the Faraday cage.

TheOatmeal, as one of the Internet's most popular online comic writer, was able to fundraise thousands of dollars for a Tesla museum using this infographic.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla

Historically-accurate and aesthetically-amusing information transmission.

Like if Schoolhouse Rock! grew up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ1Mz7kGVf0

The following exhibits were additional reminders of scientific discoveries and technological applications that the general public encounters on a daily basis, whether their encounter would be for pleasure and/or utility.

The thermal camera was a big hit with everyone; expect them at your local fair instead of funhouse mirrors.

Call of Duty's gamers wouldn't be able to focus on body parts that make gradient spots; shoot anything white to win.

http://www.themodernwarfare2.com/mw2/multiplayer/weapons/sniper-rifles/intervention/

I like this graphic for its attempt to show the public that music in your car doesn't just come out of nowhere and your microwave isn't a magic heat box - invisible forces are just waves at different frequencies that can be observed and even manipulated.

My friend took a panorama picture of this star-jewelry collection.
She got quite a workout from the 40-foot walk along the wall.

Our human interpretation and appreciation of stars runs wild, as seen by the pictured jewelry above and even in powerful metaphors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJoTxJ5DPxk

This time capsule, and the concept behind all time capsules, is very interesting indeed. Those who make them today have a message to tell the future, if not themselves then others, of how they lived; in addition, it is a preservation of dearest items that cannot be allowed to be forgotten.
 Will the future appreciate the confined contents for an evaluation of human progression, nostalgic pieces of brighter or darker days, sources of intellect forgotten by their era?

A telescope...a hidden gem in the basement...

WAIT.


WHY, DOESN'T THAT LOOK FAMILIAR.
http://youtu.be/MEH5O4sNssE?t=2m35s

I did happen to attend a show in the planetarium, Centered in the Universe, and it was fantastic. My narrator was like a subdued Jane Lynch, the 3D experience can't be replicated with any set of recycled theater glasses and IMAX screen, and it puts you in the middle of that Powers of 10 video to the point of . Really, if you go to the Griffith, lie back in a chair and learn some stuff about space.

NACHO TIME

Also, my girlfriend and I decided that our stomachs wanted preserved-for-truck-delivery-up-a-mountain-then-thawed-for-over-paying-customers nachos and made it a thing for every subsequent museum visit afterwards. 

Sorry, I couldn't find a .gif of Jack Black saying NACHOOOOO!
http://parentpreviews.com/movie-reviews/nacho-libre

No picture available (because we wanted to stuff our faces as quickly as possible) but the pile of chips, and nacho cheese drizzle flood, guacamole and sour cream scoops, and olive and jalapeño shower was on par with a high school's lazy distribution to even lazier, uncaring teen students. It's on the bottom of our museum-favorites list.

LACMA

I went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) on July 6th and saw much more than the beloved lights that grace many a Facebook Cover Picture.

Unfortunately, I didn't find anything from the Japanese Art section to relate to our materials, but the large, ancient, intricately-minimalist pieces were very nice.

I was able to visit all the main exhibits/halls including Art of the Americas, Art of the Ancient World at the Hammer Building, Art of the Pacific, European, Islamic, Modern, and Southeast Asian Art at the Ahmanson Building, the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, and the Resnick Pavillion, but I'll be grouping these pieces according to our material structure from class.

The next few pictures are technological displays that I feel represented the Third Culture of either a fusion of Art and Science or an actual third form of appreciation for knowledge through technology.

The power of one-way transmission is felt through this radio, where surely many people on this side of the signal would listen on edge for the latest that the world could bring to them instantly.

An older form of patient-monitoring that revolutionized not only how we can take care of hospital patients, but also signified remote communication across battlefields, work places, and our own homes. Actual physical presence is no longer necessary to pass influence.

Treasuring of scientific instruments is not a "geeky" thing, but a noble preservation of the skills of their users.

Math and numerical artistry were also present.

Two is more than just a number; it can hold things inside that may be unique to a single person's experience with the number, or it might convey a universal feeling just like color-association.

This piece is captioned with numerical times and dates, amounts of bricks and knots to show how much of our lives are quantified.

This glass structure instantly struck me as soundwaves, and it's title "Music" indeed indicated it to be so. The peaks are more impressive to some in 3D structure than the hills and valleys they arise from on paper.

Without the mathematical principles of perspective, this piece of art would not have such an alluring hallway.

Similarly, perspective here creates the vanishing point where the subject is clearly headed, provoking the question of "Where exactly is she going?" and "Does she know what she is doing?"

Where some may find optical illusions confusing to the point of dizziness, some are able to appreciate the limitations of human perception of physical objects and properties.

These large-scale billiards balls represent a game that relies on skillful application of geometry and physics to win.

The Smoke structure does not have a functional purpose besides providing observers with different perspectives of the same shape from different angles, much like the dimensions of Flatland.

The architectural world of skylines, the ultimate application of geometry and physics, makes the edges of this bowl, the artist clearly showing how quick is the recognition of urban structures.

This very expansive set of urban structures modeled our dependence on mathematical properties for achieving structural stability, utility, and beauty.

Early robotics also found a display.

This Memory Board looked to me a lot like the punchcards that began memory storage.

Medical technology had some presence as well.

These abnormal walls bear a resemblance to tbe 3D printing sculptures that are becoming increasingly useful in constructing personalized medical technologies for humans and animals alike.

More than a spiritual practice, mummification applied Egyptian knowledge of anatomical structures to create an artistic process

.

This symbol of man and snake has persisted as a symbol of medicine even until today, making this sculpture of Hyiegia recognizable as an avatar of health if not by name.

Not too far off was biotechnology...

This 20-foot tall series of folds reminded me of the microvilli that line several mucous membranes of our body that actually serve to make our chemical processes more efficient; standing in between these structures makes one interact with their very own biology.

The battleground might not only refer to the biological warfare between your own immune system and the invading organisms all around, but also your personal inflictions upon it and the rights that governments wish to impose or take away from it.

The fascination we have with space of course left its mark on artists as well.

Described by the other to represent "an opening to a new kind of thought", this piece does invoke the new perspectives on physical capabilities that space offers.

Entitled "Life Begins," this depiction of an explosion in space is paralleled against a newborn baby and a fruit seed to show the shared qualities of very different environments.

This nexus of light captures the intensity of stars and the entrancing effect of the individual rays and collective glow.

I'd like to end this post on a piece that models how many artists and scientists alike begin - by looking out into the world and wondering what the can do with it.

Although LACMA had a lot of historical art pieces that displayed individuals that made it hard to understand the artistic recognition of more than the subject's mere presence someone who existed, one could take some time and understand the context of that person's influence and relate it to some sort of scientific underpinning that would make it relevant to our class. LACMA was definitely an amazing experience of rediscovery of important fusions between art and science throughout human history.

He kept me from exploring restricted areas of LACMA and having more things to write about.

Nanotechnology + Space + Art (Things that Shaped My Childhood)

Before I even knew about Shepard, Armstrong, or the Apollo missions from elementary school, I was thrown into space culture as soon as I could digest mass media. 

Abandon the old life [of the Wild West and its cowboys].
Become a space ranger.
<http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/File:Buzz_Lightyear_out_of_the_box.jpg>

Their presence not only persisted through The Jetsons and Star Trek, but also into the heroes on my television screen that represented great achievement and even greater promise. 

One season of super spacemen wasn't enough.
<http://www.rangercentral.com/toys/toy-spfigures.htm>

Want to be amazing? Join NASA, that's it. And do what? Anything. Contribute anything to a space adventure and you have become someone incredible.

He actually got a response. NASA still needs people, apparently.
<http://geekologie.com/2013/07/7-year-old-sends-letter-to-nasa-expressi.php>

Well, you don't even have to be in space. You can pretend and it'll still be representative of the amazing.

Sadly, not as popular as its parodied "Space Oddity."

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4zV4pJ8MwM>

What's not to love about space? Even with all that's left to discover on Earth, there's even more out there.

But to get out there, we have master what we have here. A way to do that seems to be through nanotechnology, which was us thinking (really, really, REALLY) small instead of big...

Go home and accuse you parents why they never supported your aspirations to be a LEGO pilot.
<http://www.123inspiration.com/full-scale-star-wars-x-wing-fighter-built-out-of-5-million-lego-bricks/>

...or at least to get to something big. Professor Gimzewski's quoted Richard Feynman's "Put the atoms down where the chemist says, and so you make the substance" embodied nanotechnology in taking the smallest components of nature, atoms, and moving them around like our playthings, but with purpose.

LEGOs...for SCIENCE.
<http://randommization.com/2009/05/06/lego-mindstorm-nxt-robot-is-an-artist/>

This purpose can just be an exploration of our God-like manipulation of microscopic environments, headed by people like Paul Rothemund operating with DNA origami or inscribing encyclopedic volumes on pinheads to prove to each other time and time again we can do (almost) anything.

You can do this with DNA.
YES, YOU SPECIFICALLY.
<http://blog.treefeathers.com/2008/08/sho-creations-miniature-origami.html>

But we can't let creativity get away without practical applications. The Scanning Tunnelling Microscope is undoubtedly more impressive with its reconstruction of nanoscale surfaces than the light microscopes you get to play with in high school or the electron microscopes that you hear is weighing down your university's basement floors.

The microscopic surfaces of copper plates are ruthless.
<http://xkcd.com/315/>

And yet nanotechnology offers recreation of natural nanoparticle like gecko feet...

Want nanoscopic implants of spider-legs?
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALRXodkXnrA>

...blue morpho butterfly light mirror-like reflection as opposed to coloration by pigmentation...

Just like a butterfly.
Stings like a bee.
<http://www.hyperstealth.com/Quantum-Stealth/>

...personalized medicines that heal your ailing body in ways no drug or surgeon can - all because we can move our intelligence to a scale that we cannot be present at, but we can enact our presence on. 

Well, not yet.
*sigh* You're a true hero, Atom.
<http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/All-New_Atom_Vol_1_22>

The limitations of our natural bodies become a moot point when we can transcend them and change the microscopic world from within. Much like space is shown by contributors to Art and Zero Gravity to offer an escape from, or at least a defiance of, the world we've come to know for so long, so does nanotechnology.

That's Buzz Aldrin in zero gravity. But not in space.
<http://www.gozerog.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Photos_and_Videos.welcome&typeid=D717C203-1372-5743-E98841098DE889C9&albumid=F05E15E4-1372-5743-E99746EEB8396943&media=1>

The embracing of a nanotechnological world we must visualize and actively work our minds to grasp the abstract as explained by the Nanomeme Syndrome, is very applicable to our space endeavors as well. The great majority of humankind will not, for now, be able to personally obtain information about space first-hand and thus must rely on assumptions and the limited knowledge we remotely acquire. 

Notice that we take up a teeny, tiny fraction of the shaded box.
<http://xkcd.com/1071/>

From what we do know, space offers resources that is ours for the harvesting, as opposed to what the other residents of Earth would like a fair share of.

This tablet game is a training application for future asteroid-miners.
Really, half the game is mining for upgrade materials.
<http://www.mobygames.com/game/ipad/galaxy-on-fire-2/screenshots/gameShotId,538191/>

Even with what little we know about space, we follow the lead of those at Leonardo Space Arts and MARS Patent who exhibit art in space and thrust ourselves out there ready to see what happens. 

Be glad Bebo, and not Facebook, sent out thousands of other people's embarrassing pictures for aliens to laugh at.
<http://www.technewsdaily.com/2535-top-space-alien-communications.html>

Both worlds, though seemingly inaccessible by the fate nature has provided us and our size, is actually very much ours to invade. We will fill them with whatever versions of ourselves we may.

I move this to be the official mascot of the world.
<http://iwantcupcakes.tumblr.com/post/31735511735/blah-blah-blah-blah-me-me-me>

Maybe, someday, we might even become mediators and need to fuse the two worlds.

Bill Nye explaining how hive nanobots with lasers might take down an asteroid before it gets to us.

<http://youtu.be/Agdvt9M3NJA?t=5m20s>

Sources


AsapSCIENCE. Could We Stop An Asteroid? Youtube, 2013. Feat. Bill Nye. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Agdvt9M3NJA>

Comme d'habitude. "Blah, blah, blah, blah, me, me, me!". Tumblr, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://iwantcupcakes.tumblr.com/post/31735511735/blah-blah-blah-blah-me-me-me>

Cramer, Guy. Quantum Stealth; The Invisible Military Becomes A Reality. HyperStealth, 2009. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://www.hyperstealth.com/Quantum-Stealth/>

Darkseid01. All-New Atom 22.jpg. DC Wikia, 2010. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/File:All-New_Atom_22.jpg>

Drake P. David Bowie's "Space Oddity". Youtube, 2006. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhSYbRiYwTY&feature=player_embedded>

Forde, Kathleen. DANCING ON THE CEILING: ART & ZERO GRAVITY. Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, 2010. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://zerogravity.empac.rpi.edu/>

Geekologie. 7-Year Old Sends Letter To NASA Expressing His Desire To Go To Mars, Actually Receives A Response. Geekologie, 2013. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://geekologie.com/2013/07/7-year-old-sends-letter-to-nasa-expressi.php?

Gimzewski, Jim. Nanotech Jim pt 1. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7jM6-iqzzE&feature=player_embedded>

Gimzewski, Jim. Nanotech Jim pt 2. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEp6t0v-v9c>

Gimzewski, Jim. Nanotech Jim pt 3. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0HCNiU_108>

Gimzewski, Jim. Nanotech Jim pt 4. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHCuZetAIhk>

Gimzewski, Jim. Nanotech Jim pt 5. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OWc8nmHJmY>

Gimzewski, Jim. Nanotech Jim pt 6. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKlViSKkPd0>

Gimzewski, Jim; Vesna, Victoria. The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of fact & fiction in the construction of a new science. UCLA, n.d. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/publications/publications/02-03/JV_nano/JV_nano_artF5VG.htm>

Inspiration. Full Scale ‘Star Wars’ X-Wing Fighter Built Out of 5 Million LEGO Bricks. 123 Inspiration, 2013. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://www.123inspiration.com/full-scale-star-wars-x-wing-fighter-built-out-of-5-million-lego-bricks/>

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Rothemund, Paul. Paul Rothemund details DNA folding. TED, 2008.
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Vesna, Victoria. Space pt 4. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5ClKO6AJPo&feature=player_embedded>

Vesna, Victoria. Space pt 5. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnSUHMXBmdg>

Vesna, Victoria. Space pt6. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYmOtFjIj0M>

XKCD. Braille. XKCD, n.d. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://xkcd.com/315/>

XKCD. Exoplanets. XKCD, n.d. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://xkcd.com/1071/>