Event 3: Weak or No Signal

The Weak or No Signal Exhibition located at the Wight Gallery at UCLA, was puzzling yet interesting. This art exhibition challenges the sightseer to think about the theme these art pieces express. I think a big factor of interpreting this exhibition was up to the viewer's imagination and using their own knowledge to aid with their interpretation.
Me and one of the art pieces at the Weak or No Signal exhibit
Without further ado, one of my favorite pieces of art from the exhibit was the one labeled as Apptopia. This segment of the exhibition showcased two clouds and on them projected this app-dominated world. Projected onto one of the clouds was apps doing all kinds of distinct motions and traveling from one destination to another. The other cloud was a virtual world with a robot as a building and apps moving as if they were cars. You get the message, it is an app themed art piece. This made me think back to the lecture on robotics and art. The virtual world depicted in the clouds seem like a dream that provided a view into an alternate reality where life is heavily reliant on technology, you could call it a technological utopianism. Professor Vesna also mentioned how the movie Metropolis was influenced by the high moving mechanization of production (Vesna). Also reminded me how evident it is that social media has been a big factor in today's pop culture and how much people rely on it today, which might have motivated such art piece. 
Apptopia at the Weak or No Signal Exhibit
One other art piece that caught my eye because of its creative use of items was titled Social Media Without Internet. This art piece is a mini gallery within itself made up of different combination of items. For example, the artist used burnt toothpicks, printed backgrounds, bone dipped in paint, etc. All these items were arranged in a way that seemed like we just walked into a miniature art gallery. Just outside the mini-gallery were two phone holders for visitors to place their phones and take pictures of it. I think it was titled Social Media Without Internet because it aimed to represent Instagram or any similar platform in that specific realm. I immediately thought back to the third culture where technology is the bridge between science and art cultures (Snow). But also reminded me of how mathematics and art both work together in this piece of art, it is also depicted in the form of architecture (Vesna).
Social Media Without Internet
I thought this art exhibition specifically fused the elements of art, technology, and science very nicely because of its uniqueness and creativity. Creative minds are rare to find nowadays but I definitely think I enjoyed this exhibit that much more because of how it represents aspects of modern culture in ways we never thought of. It tackled modern day aspects and various discussions that we are all familiar with such as technological utopias or things like artificial intelligence. Overall, I would really recommend any student to attend just for the experience. 
References:

“DMA 2018 MFA Thesis ExhibitionWeak Or No Signal - Announcements.” Art & Education, www.artandeducation.net/announcements/158398/weak-or-no-signal-ucla-dma-2018-mfa-thesis-exhibition.

Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York: Cambridge UP, 1961. Print.

Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” Cole UC online. Youtube, 9 April 2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watchv=mMmq5B1LKDg&feature=player_embedded>

Vesna,Victoria. “Lecutre Part 2.” Robotics + Art. 12 Oct. 2012. Lecture.

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