Week 4: Medical Technology + Art

The term medical technology is deceptive in it's connection to art for two reasons, the first being that technology makes it seem as though this connection is recent, within the past 100 years or so.  The second is that, when looked at on the surface, the medical field and art come across as two disparate fields of study.  What most people don't realize is that medicine and art have a long, overlapping history, dating back to the Renaissance and even to ancient Greece and the Hippocratic Oath.  In fact, during the Renaissance, artists worked hand in hand with doctors who were dissecting the human body in order to accurately capture the body and what the doctors were finding. 
Example of anatomical art drawing by Vesalius who worked during the 1500's.
This long, intertwined history between medical technology and art continues to this today.  In fact, artists such as Diane Gromala, who used virtual reality and MRI's of her own body to create a 3D journey through the body, are living proof of it.  The video below is just one of the many examples of virtual reality tours though the human body that are available today.
 

But, the connection between medical technology and art goes beyond virtual reality and models.  It can be seen in the way that doctors image and map the human body, not just in the pictures they take of the body but the sounds and sensations that accompany generating them. 

To me, the pinnacle of the connection between the two areas can be seen in the prosthetics.  On the one hand, prosthetics were created for a very medical purpose and are need to be anatomically and proportionally correct.
Example of a cutting edge prosthetic arm, made to reflect human anatomical proportions.

 But, on the other hand, prosthetics had to be developed and refined.  In addition to be anatomically correct, they also need to be aesthetically pleasing and mimic the shape and look a real arm.  So, in this sense, art comes in to play in the design process.  Furthermore, the development and of a prosthetic incorporates more that just the visual sense in the sounds it makes as it moves, the way it feels, and the sensations it evokes for the user.





Sources:
Vesna, Victoria. “Medicine Part 1.” DESMA 9. Lecture.

Gromala, Diane. “Curative Powers of Wet, Raw Beauty.” Tedx. 7 Dec 2011. Web. 

Tyson, Peter. “The Hippocratic Oath Today.” PBS. 27 Mar. 2001. Web.

“Vesalius’s Renaissance Anatomy Lessons.” British Library. Web. http://www.bl.uk/learning/cult/bodies/vesalius/renaissance.html

“Journey Through the Human Body in 3D Flight & Motion Simulation.” Youtube, uploaded by Geigerfilm, 17 Mar 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXQgPCsd83c 


Summers, Nick.  “Prosthetic Arms Inspired by Deus Ex are Coming Next Year.” Engadget, 8 June, 2016. Web. 

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 1, 2017 at 2:46 PM

    I like how you touched upon how art and medicine interact in increasingly advanced ways that ultimately help the patient (i.e. prosthetics). I actually have an acquaintance who has a prosthetic hand that is extremely sophisticated, aesthetically pleasing, and exceptionally functional - whatever technology was used allowed the hand to really function almost as if he had never lost his actual hand. So it's interesting having witnessed this union in real life and to see how far technology - with the help of art - has come, especially in the medical field.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 9: Space + Art

Image
Few people would be shocked to hear that the human race was, and still is, fascinated by all things space.  I think that part of this fascination comes from the fact that space is relatively unknown and most of the things about it will not be uncovered during any of our lifetimes.  Copernicus' work on the sun centered universe But, this does not stop people from wondering and trying.   The wonder with space dates back to the times of the ancient Greeks and Romans, who named the planets after their gods and continued into Renaissance times with Galileo and Copernicus, one of the first to postulate that the earth rotated around the sun and not the other way around.   Even today people continue to look to space as inspiration.   Many works of science fiction deal with space exploration or colonization and, in doing so, create these fantastic images of a world just beyond our reach. Some artists have gone in the opposite direction and have captured what space...
Read more

Week 7: Neuroscience + Art

Image
The brain is the most complex, and arguably the most important, of all the organs in our body.  For something that plays a role in everything human beings do, there are still so many things that are unknown about the brain.  However, in recent years, the field of neuroscience has been making advances on imaging and studying the brain and its functions.  Because of the brain’s central role in daily life, it is not surprising that studying the brain has gone beyond the field of neuroscience to influence other parts of society, what Franzetto and Anker termed neuroculture.   Examples of the some of the many different shapes a neuron can have. What makes neuroscience and all things brain related so easy to apply to other areas is the vast amount of diversity within the brain.  Not only are most of the neurons in the brain different, unique shapes but the brain performs so many function from controlling movement to pain awareness to consciousness. Th...
Read more

Math and Art

Image
If you were to ask the average person their thoughts on the connection between math and art, chances are their answer would say something like they aren’t.  People see math as a very left brained logical undertaking while art is seen as a right brain, creative activity.  I will admit that I was one of those people who did not really see much of an overlap between the two.  But, the more I have thought about and gone through the readings, I can see just how wrong I was.  The first thing that really sparked this connection for me was Professor Vesna’s lecture dealing with the golden mean.   Michelangelo's painting on the sistine chapel with lines superimposed  showing the presence of the golden mean I gravitated towards this as it is a concept I was already familiar with and is closer to the math/science world that I am more comfortable in.  Seeing how often the golden mean was used in art and why was the first time I truly saw the immense o...
Read more