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  DESMA 9 Week 1 Blog       We have covered the topic of "two cultures" in this week,  two worlds of thinking, that of the arts and that of the sciences.  It is the conception and stereotype that scientists believe literary intellectuals to be "lacking in foresight" and "restricting of art to the existential", while artists think of scientists as "unaware of man's condition" and "shallowly optimistic" that caused the divergence.  It is interesting to me that C.P Snow, the man who coined the phrase "Two Cultures" in the 1950s, wanted the title of his lecture to be "The Rich and the Poor".  This in itself is evidence that there are many types of culture gaps between groups in our society. I'm from China, and in most Chinese universities students are separated into two groups of liberal art and science. And misunderstandings arise with stereotypes and conflicts between them. For example, most parents want ...
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DESMA 9 Week 2 Blog

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    Making Art From Equations     This week's lecture is about the convergence of Math and Art.  As a significant part, or even "base" of all science, math plays a pivotal role in all aspects of life, even art!  In anything from a detailed drawing, to graphic design, to architecture, math is at work in tandem with art.  Especially nowadays, art is being taken to whole new lengths beyond just a palette and a canvas. Designers are now able to use computers to develop their own unique styles of art that help bring their craft into the technologically advanced 21st century.  This first article i read summed this all up pretty well: "Art is illusion, and transformations are important in creating illusion." These transformations are only made possible by the computers and the mathematics behind the computers that help this art come to life.          I still remember the following TED talk that I came across years ago, ...
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DESMA 9 Week 7 Blog

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    The overlap between neuroscience and art is an interesting one, and definitely worth exploring. This relationship started rather recently, but is quickly evolving and becoming more and more prevalent. In Dr. Vesna's lecture we see that Santiago Ramon y Cajal was the founder of neuroanatomy and was specifically interested in the connection patterns of neurons by shape (Vesna). Drawing of Purkinje and Granule Cells from Pigeon Ceregellum by Santiago Ramon y Cajal, 1899. http://public.media.smithsonianmag.com/legacy_blog/neurons.jpg     One such modern extension of this interest is microetching. This is a technique where neural junctions are inscribed into metal such as gold with the aim of illustrating the connections of the brain (Drinker). The picture changes based on the position of the observer, which keeps the picture simple enough to analyze while still conveying the inherent complexity of the system.     My experience in the...
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