Eric Musgrave Event #3 Blog

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Today I had the opportunity to go to the Undergraduate showcase at the Broad Arts Center and view a number of projects from students here at UCLA. The first piece I examined was a piece by Malachi Wright entitled, "Glory Boyz." The piece was a procreate that was printed out and then framed. It features former U.S. presidents all posing in a photo cheering and excited to be in the picture. However, in the center of the photo is former president Barack Obama who is shirtless and seems unamused by the festivities going on in the picture. Additionally, most of the presidents in the picture are throwing up gang signs which is the artist's way of saying the worlds of gang culture and politics are more alike than initially meets the eye. In week 1 of the DESMA 9 course, we explored the two cultures theory and its relationship to north and south campus here at UCLA (Vesna, Lecture 1). I argue that similarly, this piece exemplifies two distinct cultures: politics and gangs and suggests that a "third culture" (Vesna, pg. 123) that may exist between the two.


"Glory Boyz" - Malachi Wright

Me at the event.

Another piece that was intriguing to me was a piece entitled, "Lonely" by Pam Ladawan which is a short animation that depicts a clown-like figure celebrating their birthday as people slowly fade away symbolizing loneliness on one's birthday. The central theme of the piece is that as long as one remembers their own birthday, they will never be lonely even if everyone else forgets. I think that duality in having a non-human robotic structure experience the human emotion of loneliness is fascinating. In Lecture 2 of the Robotics + Art Lectures, Professor Vesna mentions "cyborgs" (Vesna, lecture 2) or otherwise human-like robots. Ladawan's representation of the human emotions of a robot in the piece "Lonely" draws parallels to the real life experience of many individuals.


"Lonely" - Pam Ladawan

In closing, by attending this event I was able to learn the inner depths of what makes the artists want to keep going. By examining each of these pieces, I was able to come to a greater understanding of the parallels between art and culture and furthermore, the ways in which technology can be used to express this. I highly recommend my classmates to attend this event.



"Lonely" - Pan Ladawan

Works Cited
Vesna, Victoria. DESMA 9 Robotics + Art (Lecture 2). University of California, Los Angeles.
---. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo, vol. 34, no. 2, 2001, pp. 121–25. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1577014.
---.  DESMA 9 Two Cultures Pt. 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNI7dF3DIAM. University of California, Los Angeles.

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