Week 4: MedTech + Art

The most obvious evidence of art in the medical world comes in the form of anatomy, where artists and medical professionals have worked rigorously on correctly identifying the internal structure and makeup within different species.  This overall structure includes muscles, bones, organs, and ligaments.  While doctors have performed the experiments required to correctly identify the overall structure of bodies, artists are required to actually realistically and accurately represent what doctors have proven from experiment.  One example of such artistic reconstruction can be seen at the Bodies Exhibit, which displays 13 whole body human specimens at the Luxor in Las Vegas (Luxor.com).
 
Bodies Exhibit

The advent of computational technological advancement has allowed for further reconstruction and imaging of internal body structure.  Some examples of such imaging includes X-Rays, MRIs, and CAT scans.  I, personally, have undergone dozens of X-Rays and MRIs during my lifetime, and have been fortunate enough to look at and obtain copies of many of the images.  X-Rays work by utilizing electromagnetic waves to detect the bone structure of a species, with bones showing up as white and other bodily organs appearing black (MedlinePlus.gov).  MRI scans work similarly by using magnetic and radio waves to detect internal organs and tissues and create computerized images that display these organs/tissues (Tidy).
 
X-Ray

Recently, art and medicine have further evolved to include plastic surgery and the insertion of computer chips within the human body.  One such example of the concept of plastic surgery as art came up in this week’s lecture, and that is the example of ORLAN. ORLAN is a French artist that uses herself as the artistic medium.  She has redefined her facial structure so that it aligns with popular figures from historical art.  For example, her forehead is designed after da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and her chin is designed to depict Botticelli’s Venus (ORLAN.edu).
 
ORLAN

Kevin Warwick has been a pioneer in the field of neuro-surgical implantations, as he has inserted an implant into his left arm in order to link his nervous system to a computer in an attempt to assist the disabled (Warwick).  While experiments into this field are fairly recent, they do give an idea of how art and technology can help shape the field of medicine in the years to come; as well as an idea of how far art and medicine have come since the early days of anatomy, to X-Rays and plastic surgery, and finally to computerized implants.


References:
“Biography.” ORLAN, 2017, www.orlan.eu/. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017.

“Bodies... The Exhibition.” Luxor, 2017,
www.luxor.com/en/entertainment/bodies-the-exhibition.html. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017.

Tidy, Colin. “MRI Scan.” Patient, 23 Oct. 2015, patient.info/health/mri-scan. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017.

Warwick, Kevin. “Kevin Warwick.” Kevin Warwick, Coventry University, 2017, www.kevinwarwick.org/. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017.

“X-Rays.” MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 4 Mar. 2016, medlineplus.gov/xrays.html. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017.

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