Week 7 - Neuroscience and Art

In this weeks discussion of the brain and our consciousness there were a couple of things that caught my attention and helped my understanding of this material.  In a society as advanced as ours that tends to manipulate all of natural creation, it is no wonder that we have meddled with our own consciousness.  Our focus this week on drugs like LSD is interesting because it is a work of scientific experimentation and creation yet has since been the foundation for many advancements in art, culture, social reality, and technology.  Hoffman's creation sparked a noted consciousness shift in many fields and the effects of LSD can be seen to this day.



In his now famous 1943 bicycle ride, Albert Hoffman noted many symptoms of LSD use including expanded thoughts and perception both mental and visual.  Those who have followed after have studied the use of this drug as a way to expand the conscious mind as well as feel spiritual connections with the world around them and the people who are a part of it.  There are many known notable figures who have boasted the positive effects of LSD in fields across our society.  We saw in lecture it's influence on education and literature through the works of Timothy Leary and Aldous Huxley but there are many others who share these thoughts.

LSD has been been given little credit in its contributions to the world as we know yet it is at the center of many of the advancements in art, culture, and even science.  Steve Jobs gives credits much of his creative design and thinking to his use of LSD and even Bill Gates admits to using it as well. These are two men who have shaped the entire tech industry through their innovations and are some of the most notable names of the 20th and 21st century.

Other affluent people who indulged in the use of acid include: John C. Lilly (Neuroscientist), Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, Francis Crick, Kary Mullis (Nobel-winning Chemist), and countless others in fields ranging from acting, writing, and directing to technology, medicine, and biology.  There is much more to the use of acid then social stigma would have people believe and despite it's misuse the world around us would look very different if Albert Hoffman had never taken that fateful bicycle ride.  

Works Cited

Armstrong, Walter. "Steve Jobs: LSD Was One of The Best Things I've Done in My Life | The Fix." The Fix. N.p., 10 July 2011. Web. May 2015. <http://www.thefix.com/content/steve-jobs-think-different-and-lsd-9143>.

Brownlee, John. "101 Year Old Inventor Of LSD Asked Steve Jobs How Dropping Acid Helped Him Create The Mac | Cult of Mac." Cult of Mac. N.p., 16 Nov. 2011. Web. May 2015. <http://www.cultofmac.com/130222/101-year-old-inventor-of-lsd-asked-steve-jobs-how-dropping-acid-helped-him-create-the-mac/>.

"Effects of LSD 100% Positive in New Swiss Study, LSD Still Awesome." Wondergressive. N.p., 25 Jan. 2014. Web. May 2015. <http://wondergressive.com/lsd-positive-results/>.

"LSD: Cultural Revolution and Medical Advances." LSD: Cultural Revolution and Medical Advances. Royal Society of Medicine, n.d. Web. May 2015. <http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/Issues/2006/January/LSD.asp>.

Rothstein, Edward. "A Mind-Altering Drug Altered a Culture as Well." The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 May 2008. Web. May 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/arts/05conn.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&>.

References

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/16/10_famous_geniuses_who_used_drugs_and_were_better_off_for_it_partner/

http://coed.com/2011/05/14/20-most-notable-lsd-users-of-all-time/

http://io9.com/5876304/10-scientific-and-technological-visionaries-who-experimented-with-drugs

Week 6 - Biotech and Art

This week I feel like we have finally started to look at scientific progression in relationship to artistic creation not just from a influential and relational perspective but also begin to analyze the deeper question.  Through technology and modern knowledge, artists can do truly radical thing but should they? When does art for the sake of art become counterproductive and what amount of meaning do unnatural scientific processes truly add and is that worth it?

These questions are what have floated through my mind as I have studied this weeks material especially in looking at Orlan both in the Harlequin Coat as well as works of hers in the past in performance surgery.  I was also intrigued by Kac's creation of the GFP Bunny and the meaning he ascribes to it as an artistic symbol.

Orlan's work piqued my interest when we looked at her body transformations in week 4.  Initially I couldn't wrap my head around the need to use body modification in art but her commentary on the social perception of beauty is interesting in terms of what we accept and admire in the physical sense. Her Harlequin Coat continues this set of ideas in a different direction through looking at race and social relations in a way that I think perfectly combines art, meaning, and science.  What really makes me accept her approach is most of her experimentation and creation is performed on her own body, that choice makes her art more genuine to me than others who create using animals for the sake of art.

Eduardo Kac to me takes art a step too far by taking an established and proven scientific discovery and replicating it for the sake of art.  I can see the value of animal alterations in learning and understanding within the realm of scientific discovery but in art this seems to me like an unnecessary line to cross.  There is a limit in my eyes to where creativity should be limited when experimentation on live animals is the outcome.  Artistic meaning and messages have inherent value, however this doesn't merit limitless experimentation.  

Works Cited

"French Artist Orlan: 'Narcissism Is Important'" YouTube. The Guardian, n.d. Web. May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ1Ph-Pprj4>.

Kac, Eduardo. "GFP BUNNY." GFP BUNNY. N.p., n.d. Web. May 2015.

"ORLAN Harlequin Coat." Still, Living. SymbioticA, n.d. Web. 10 May 2015.

"ORLAN: The Harlequin's Coat." YouTube. VIS Online, n.d. Web. May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v4miEBFXTY>.