ART 12B Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Pseudoscience, Dog Bite, Junk Science
Art 12B 5.31.2018: Lecture 17
• The uestios of this lass ae ho did e get hee ad hee ae e aa?
• There are recurring patterns throughout this class have been:
➢ Technological Utopianism
➢ The phenomenon of the skeuomorph (new technologies emulating old technologies)
• All-Salt Vimeo Video: an example of media intervention artwork where artists utilize the methods
of media and media culture (in this case advertising) to make a message. This video however also
reveals that sewage treatment plants only catch the big things in the water while some of the most
dangerous chemicals are able to slip through these water treatment plants.
➢ The half-life of these (most of which are pharmaceuticals) is ridiculously huge since most
synthetic chemicals cannot be broken down by the environments current biomedical
processes.
The Human Experiment Movie
• Rates of change in disease: Breast cancer rates have gone up 30% since 1975 in women and men,
7.3 million Americans have trouble conceiving or carrying to term, in 1999 1/500 kids had autism,
now it is 1/80. All of these are on the rise since the Chemical Revolution.
➢ Chemical use in America has increased 2000%
➢ 80,000 known synthetic chemicals in our domestic environment and none of which have been
tested for their toxicity. And no work has been done to look at how those chemicals interact.
• Environmental Protection Agency: watches over chemicals but has issues removing chemicals from
the market because the chemicals do not have to be proven safe to be placed on the market.
➢ Last time, the EPA actually lost their asbestos case in trying to ban the chemical.
➢ Chemical companies lobby strongly against this like the ACC (American Chemistry Council). In
2011 they spent 52 million dollars lobbying.
➢ Safer Chemicals, Healthy Family is one organization fighting against the chemical industry.
• BPA: one of the highest produced chemical in the world. It is actually an endochrin disruptor but it
had amazing properties for plastic because it is clear and almost shatter proof. They are in plastic
cups, in fabric sheets, ect.
➢ 93% of Americans tested to have BPA in their systems.
➢ These chemicals can act like hormones. Besophemal A.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
There are recurring patterns throughout this class have been: The phenomenon of the skeuomorph (new technologies emulating old technologies) All-salt vimeo video: an example of media intervention artwork where artists utilize the methods of media and media culture (in this case advertising) to make a message. This video however also reveals that sewage treatment plants only catch the big things in the water while some of the most dangerous chemicals are able to slip through these water treatment plants. The half-life of these (most of which are pharmaceuticals) is ridiculously huge since most synthetic chemicals cannot be broken down by the environments current biomedical processes. Rates of change in disease: breast cancer rates have gone up 30% since 1975 in women and men, 7. 3 million americans have trouble conceiving or carrying to term, in 1999 1/500 kids had autism, now it is 1/80. All of these are on the rise since the chemical revolution.
