Event 1

For the first event of this course, I attended the "Eco-Centric Art + Science Symposium: Prophesis and Predictions" on Friday, April 21st, 2017. I was not able to listen to all the speakers, but I was able to be there for the first two hours and was able to listen to two speakers, Linda Weintraub and James Gimzewski. 

I found Linda Weintraub's presentation to be more fascinating than James Gimzewski. Linda is an American artist, curator, educator and writer and she has been lecturing around U.S. about the topic of contemporary art, which is both environmental and ecological. 

During the event, Linda Weintraub talked about neo-materialism and society's dependence on technology and mass produced goods. She came up with examples of contemporary artists who contributed to neo-materialism and who demostrate how "art filters into not only consciousness but also into behaviors that are essential to well-being of both planets and occupants of planets." The artists Linda introduced ideas and projects that introduced the idea of eco-materialism with both artistic and scientific skills. 

Among all the artists Linda Weintraub introduced to us, Jae Rhim Lee stood out most. The title of her work is “N=1=NPK=KIMCHI=N”. What Lee did was the she reversed the assumption which states that humans are consumers and polluters who are cause of problems. She talks about how human can make beneficial contribution to environment. She discovered that human urine is composed of all the components of fertilizers, which is the NPK portion of the formula. However, those components are in wrong proportion to serve the plants. So, she studied deeply into this topic with technology and charts, to changer her daily diet to turn her urine into a perfect fertilizer. Linda Weintraub talked about Lee’s exhibition in which Lee presented how she used her urine to fertilize the cabbages and how she used that cabbages to make kimchi, which is served to the audiences in her exhibition.  

Honestly, at first, I felt deep interest in her work because I could recognize the word Kimchi, which is a tradition dish from Korea, a country that I grew up in. However, when Linda Weintraub was done talking about her, I was so surprised about how Lee could come up with using her urines to fertilize cabbages and to make kimchi out of that cabbages. Also, it was interesting because I could connect her work to what we’ve been learning in this course, DESMA 9. Lectures from past weeks focused on how art, math, science and technology are all interconnected and Jae Rhim Lee’s work was definitely a combination of art, math, science and technology. Lee had to have deep understanding of science in order to come up with how to convert her urine to a perfect fertilizer. At the same time, she should also know mathematics to change her diet to produce the accurate amount of all the components of fertilizers from her urine. I believe the equipment and tools that she used to carry out the process of converting urine to fertilizer will be considered technology and since Lee exhibited the her ideas and the tools that she used and how she carried out her idea in exhibition, she showed artistic skills, which is to present in front of others.

I would recommend this event to the other people. Before attending this event, I did not know what eco-centric art is and therefore was not interested in it. After looking at artists’ projects that Linda introduced to us, I feel like I will start following up on the upcoming events that are related to eco-centric art. Also, without attending this event, it must have been impossible for me to think about using human urine to help out the environment. I always thought human can contribute to the environment with the knowledge that we gained from education, but was never able to think about using part of human body. The event was really eye opening, I believe we can come up with many different ways to contribute to our planet using hairs and all sorts of human secretions including tears, saliva and excretions. 

Proof of attendance 1

proof of attendance 2

Resources: 

Art and Science Symposium Logo. Digital image. Artsci. UCLA, n.d. Web. 23 Apr 2017

Dannie, Marie. "Health Benefits of Kimchi". Livestrong.com. n.p. 24 June 2011. Web. 23 Apr 2017

Juniorlee. "Vegan Spinach Pie, or How to Turn Your Urine Into an Ideal Hydroponic Solution for Planets." instructables. Autodesk, Inc. n.d. Web. 23 Apr 2017

Regine. "N=1=NPK=KIMCHI=N". We Mak$ $$ney Not Art. n.p. 30 July 2007. Web. 23 Apr 2017