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This week, I tuned into an online talk by filmmaker John Halpern titled “Leveraging Community and Media Assets: A Look In and Out.” Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect as I hadn’t heard of Halpern before but by the end, I found myself thinking more critically about how media shapes our perception of the world. Screenshot of the  Leveraging Community and Media Assets: A Look In and Out Event   I’ve always considered myself an optimistic, glass-half-full kind of person. One thing that’s always bothered me is how overwhelmingly negative the news tends to be, not just on TV, but across most media platforms. While I understand that the world isn’t without its problems, it’s frustrating to see how little space is given to good news. In fact, only about 6% of news in 2023 was categorized as positive.  It was refreshing to hear John Halpern share his perspective during the talk, especially when he spoke about The Bridging Project , an initiative he was part of back in 1977. B...

This week’s lecture material reshaped the way I view the relationship between medical technology and art. I had never considered medicine to be an art form, especially when thinking back to early herbal treatments. However, when compared to today’s highly technological practices, it becomes clear that there is a strong artistic element involved. Earlier in the quarter, we explored how art and science are deeply intertwined, but I had always assumed that the medical field was purely scientific. This week’s insights challenged that belief, highlighting the artistry involved in modern medical practices. Body Worlds by Gunther von Hagens was the exhibit that captured my attention the most. At first, I found it a bit unsettling as seeing the human body so exposed is definitely not something I am used to. Although, the more I looked at it, the more I began to appreciate how it encourages us to see the body as more than just a biological system. There’s a kind of beauty in its complexity and...

Surprisingly, the relationship between industrialization and art started with something as simple as the printing press. While Gutenberg usually gets the spotlight, it was actually invented much earlier, around 1040, by the Chinese (Hoh, Anchi). This invention changed the way knowledge was produced and shared. Suddenly, books could be mass-printed, making information way more accessible than ever before. Walter Benjamin touches on this in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction , where he explains how this shift didn’t just affect how art was made and distributed but also transformed how people experienced it. According to Benjamin, reproducing art on a large scale stripped it of its “aura”; however, it opened a door for more people to engage with art in previously impossible ways. In other words, it was a trade-off that helped shape the modern world ( Benjamin, Walter ). Illustration of the early printing press (left) alongside Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the A...

Buckminster Fuller once said, “Everyone is born a genius, but the process of living de-geniuses them.” Nowhere is this more evident than in the way we often separate disciplines like art and mathematics; however, contrary to belief, they are deeply intertwined.  I always viewed mathematics and art as completely separate and entirely distinct from each other, almost on opposite ends of the spectrum. However, these lectures and readings have shown me how mistaken I was. It has revealed that mathematics is key to creating perspective in art, allowing artists to represent three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. By using geometric principles like vanishing points and angles, artists can add depth and realism to their work. A vanishing point is where parallel lines seem to meet far away, providing the illusion of depth (Marc Franz). It’s basically a visual trick rooted in geometry that helps our brains believe we’re looking into a three-dimensional space, even though it’s j...

  The series of novels Strangers and Brothers by C.P. Snow investigates the concept of the 'two cultures,' which originally addresses the divide between the rich and the poor. However, it has often been misinterpreted, with the term 'two cultures' being mistakenly understood as referring to the divide between the humanities and science, a distinction that can still be found in everyday life.  I’m a political science major, which kind of feels like I’m living in both the humanities and the sciences at the same time, so I bounce between North and South Campus. And let me tell you, even though I’ve had classes on both sides, it’s pretty obvious that each one has its own vibe. North Campus is all about greenery—lots of gardens, and the sculpture garden is the perfect spot to chill, people-watch, or just listen to music while relaxing on a bench. Meanwhile, South Campus is more industrial, with a bit of an 'inner LA' feel—lots of concrete and grey, kind of like you...