Event #1 - NANOBIOTECH & DESIGN exhibition

Yesterday I attended the Nanobiotech and Design exhibition. This exhibition featured 2 different projects created by Professor Venesas Students last quarter; Jess Rivera, Maxine Gonzales, Bela Chaunhan, and Louis Gluck.


    The first project was titled Human Print and was created by Jess Rivera, Maxine Gonzales, and Bela Chaunhan. Together they made 2 outfits that aimed to criticize the beauty industry. In the first piece, they projected very close-up pictures of their loved one skin onto a white dress. I loved this idea as it helped me understand and think deeper about the issues with beauty culture and how humans are separated from earth and nature. Animals do not cover up their "fur" or skin. Yet, as animals, we cover ourselves with makeup and criticism and feel insecure about natural and beautiful sin because of societal pressures and unrealistic beauty standards. 


    For the second piece, the artists sewed pubic hairs into a tan long-sleeve shirt and created a pair of "pants" designed to look like capillaries. The pants had random patches of fair and flowers sewn in. The group also made a song out of a compilation of scratching sounds (scratching eyebrows, pubic and body hair) to play in the background. I also enjoyed this piece because the flowers in the pants did a fantastic job further demonstrating human separation from earth and nature. 


    The second project was created by Louis Gluck and titled Biological Tesserae. Louis made an environmentally friendly stained glass window out of SCOBY. Louis's piece relates to this class as it combines aspects of art, science, and mathematics into one medium. As you can tell from the picture below, each glass window panel in his piece is different shades. Louis created this differing coloration by growing and drying layers of SCOBY for a differing amount of time. Drawing from his scientific knowledge, he understood that the older the layer of SCOBI was, the darker color it would appear. After a while, the SCOBI would fully disintegrate, making the window environmentally friendly as there would be little waste. To create the overall shape of his stained glass window, Louis used his geometry and trigonometry knowledge to arrange all 96 of his triangles or SCOBI stained glass window panels into a symmetrical hexagonal shape. Lousi employed his scientific, artistic, and mathematical knowledge to create a beautiful, visually pleasuring, and environmentally friendly stained glass window.


Works Cited

Grey, Susan. “Kombucha Leather: Your Guide to Scoby Leather.” Grow Your Pantry, 29 Jan. 2020, https://growyourpantry.com/blogs/kombucha/kombucha-leather-your-guide-to-scoby-leather. 

“NANOBIOTECH & Design Exhibition #1 at UCLA ARTSCI Gallery.” us8.Campaign, https://us8.campaign-archive.com/?e=%5BUNIQID%5D&u=9baf6baeafa7dd6c42a6db349&id=08f950686a. 

Tsephel, Khado. “Skin Color and Beauty Standards: A History.” The Science Survey, https://thesciencesurvey.com/spotlight/2022/04/24/skin-color-and-beauty-standards-a-history/. 

Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics pt1” Lecture. CoLE DESMA 9. April 9. 2012. Web.

Vesna, Victoria. “Two Cultures Lecture Part II” Lecture. CoLE DESMA 9. March 31. 2012. Web. 

Vesna, Victoria. “Two Cultures Lecture Part III ” Lecture. CoLE DESMA 9. April 2. 2012. Web.

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