Sunday, April 24, 2016

Week 4 - Art + MedTech

The bloom of art, science and technology has given birth to a world with more diversity and possibility than ever before. It has been a more urgent wish that people can live longer than before to be able to explore this world. Therefore, medical science and technology has never been out of the lens of the public. Artists like to create work about medical topics, too, especially for the interest in human anatomy.
 
Figure 1: Various of human body cross-sections from Visible Human Project
Source: https://www.imaios.com/en/e-Anatomy
 /Thorax-Abdomen-Pelvis/Visible-Human-Project
Despite Egyptians had been cutting open human bodies long time before, doing so even for research purpose was once prohibited by the Church. The turning point, however, happened in the period of renaissance. (Vesna) With accurate understanding of human body structure enabled by anatomy, many medical measures were fortified by anatomical evidence while others were proved to be unreasonable. It greatly improved the effectiveness and reliability of the medical measures. At the same time, artists also studied human anatomy a lot, effectively boosting the exploration of the internals of human body. For example, Leonardo da Vinci was considered not only a famous painter but also a great anatomist; Alastair Sooke, an art critic of Daily Telegraph, commented, "had [Leonardo] published his treatise, he would be considered more important than the Belgian anatomist Andreas Vesalius, whose influential textbook On the Fabric of the Human Body appeared in 1543." (1) The enthusiasm of artists on anatomy has lasted since then to now. The Human World Project and Visible Human Project, for example, has been influenced the perspective of artists and medical researchers hugely. The latter was launched to create dataset for visualization of the internals of human body. The accurate visual representation brought by the Visible Human Project, inspired many artistic ideas, according to Professor Vesna.

Figure 2: Drawing of a Woman's Torso by Leonardo da Vinci
Source: www.leonardoda-vinci.org
Silvia Casini from University of Venice introduced these artistic ideas and source of them when she discussed a technology called MRI. Like anatomy, MRI could provide accurate illustration of human body. Casini described MRI as a “mirror”. She pointed out the accuracy of the image formation made people believe that MRI images were “unmediated representation of themselves” and generated “powerful shock of recognition.” (Casini 81) It was the juxtaposition of the original body and the mirror image that created the artistic ideas.
 
Figure 3: Installation images of two convex mirrors
Source: http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog
/mri-art-exhibit-captures-the-beauty-of-the-human-brain

Looking into future, the gradual exploration of human body will not stop at the anatomic level. Besides mechanical properties of human parts, scientists are getting more and more interested in even more microscopic fields like neurologic signal transmission and genetics. Together with the rapid development of computer science, scientists are seeking to build interfaces between human body and outside world by digitizing neural signals. Recently, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has fund a $60 million project on this topic. (Mathas 1)

Bibliography

Casini, S. "Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Con gurations between Science and the Arts". Web. Accessed Apr. 24, 2016.
Mathas, C. "DARPA Challenges Developers to Create Device to Access and Digitize Brain Signals". Web. Accessed Apr. 24, 2016.
Sooke, A. "Leonardo da Vinci's groundbreaking anatomical sketches". Web. Accessed Apr. 24, 2016.
The Creaters Project Team. "MRI Art Exhibit Captures The Beauty Of The Human Brain". Web. Accessed Apr. 24, 2016.
Vesna, V. "Lectures on Art+Medtech". Web. Accessed Apr. 24, 2016.

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