Skip to main content

Week 4 - Medicine + Technology + Art

As an artist, an understanding of anatomy is a necessity for realistic human illustrations. I frequently use anatomical references myself for guidance whenever I'm drawing people. In Vesna's lecture videos, she explains that the dissection of the human body during the Renaissance helped both artists understand anatomy for their drawings and scientists document the findings for medical purposes. She jokingly attests that every artist that works with the body has Henry Gray's Anatomy on their book shelf, despite it being written for the medical community. However, this confidence and knowledge of human body is leading technology towards bodily modifications that step outside of plastic surgery.

Female Anatomy Reference - condensed version by ReneeViolet

Professor Kevin Warwick at the University of Reading is experimenting with the concept of cyborgs - a human fused with computer parts. He underwent surgery to install a silicon chip in his forearm. This allows his computer to monitor his movements throughout the office department and correspondingly operate lights and doors without having to manually handle any devices. In one perspective, this type of development strikes me as something that was only possible in science fiction and I'm simply awed by how far we've only during my lifetime. On another hand, I realize that there are also complications with further research in this field, as emphasized in Warwick's article.

Cyborg Surgery by jpc-art

As these type of bodily augmentations becomes less risky, the question becomes this: where should we draw the line when it comes to changing our own bodies? There is a possibility that people will misuse or overuse these cyborg implants, possibly even in the pursuit of artistic expression. As a response, we tread carefully upon the usage of this practice. Tyson's article examines the argument that the Hippocratic Oath, despite being one of the oldest and most iconic traditions, needs to be drastically modified to suit modern standards or thrown away altogether. I believe the former action should be taken, as it is the medical community's responsibility to redefine boundaries to these surgical procedures when new technologies become at their disposal.

Hippocrates by Peter Paul Rubens

Sources

jpc-art. Cyborg Surgery. 2009. DeviantArt, www.pc-art.deviantart.com/art/Cyborg-Surgery-141390521. Accessed 30 Apr. 2017.

"Medicine pt1." Online video clip. Youtube, uploaded by Victoria Vesna, 21 Apr. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep0M2bOM9Tk.

"Medicine pt3." Online video clip. Youtube, uploaded by uconlineprogram, 22 Apr. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIX-9mXd3Y4.

"Project Cyborg 1.0." Kevin Warwick, www.kevinwarwick.com/project-cyborg-1-0/. Accessed 30 Apr. 2017.

ReneeViolet. Female Anatomy Reference - condensed version. 2013. DeviantArt, www.reneeviolet.deviantart.com/art/Female-Anatomy-Reference-condensed-version-383181954. Accessed 30 Apr. 2017.

Rubens, Peter Paul. Hippocrates. 1638. National Library of Medicine, Maryland. NOVA, www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/hippocratic-oath-today.html. Accessed 30 Apr. 2017.

Tyson, Peter. "The Hippocratic Oath Today." NOVA, 27 Mar. 2001, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/hippocratic-oath-today.html. Accessed 30 Apr. 2017.

Warwick, Kevin. "Cyborg morals, cyborg values, cyborg ethics." Ethics and Information Technology, vol. 5, no. 3, 2003, pp. 131-137, www. citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.543.7907&rep=rep1&type=pdf. Accessed 30 Apr. 2017.

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 3, 2017 at 10:32 PM

    I agree with you in that drawing the line when it comes to changing our own bodies is an issue that society should probably address soon, especially since medical technology keeps advancing every month. I feel like this line can be expanded to plastic surgery as well. There must certainly be a point where too much plastic surgery begins to smudge a patient's identity. For instance, there are often viral images of KPop ideals pre and post debut. Comments always flood about how they look like completely different people. I believe that a line must also be drawn here.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 9 - Space + Art

In this week's lecture, we focused on space exploration and how our endeavors has inspired works of fiction and various art. Contemporary space-age development really started after WW2 during the Cold War. When the Spudnik satellite was hurled into orbit by the Russians in 1957, the famous "space race" was kicked off between the US and the Soviet Union. NASA was even created in effort to invest more research in a competing military space program, along with more funding towards scientific education (uconlineprogram). This tense competition resulted in a stream of scientific achievements, leading up to placing a man on the moon in 1969. (NASA) Neil Armstrong during the moonwalk, working at an equipment storage area ( NASA ) From the 50s on during this time, many science-fiction TV shows were released that influence pop culture on space, such as Planet Stories , Jetsons , and Star Trek (uconlineprogram). The creators of these shows popularized scientific concepts suc...
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 6 - BioTech + Art

As artists enter into laboratories and also collaborate with biologists, a lot of interesting pieces have been fabricated. One particular project that struck out to me was Jason Davis' audio microscope that transforms light information into sounds and allows you to hear living cells. The idea itself is deeply interdisciplinary that I could see it exhibited in both a science and an art museum, especially in an educational setting for the latter option. Joe Davis' audio microscope (geneticsandculture.com) Biotech art like this validates life as an expressive medium, as it gives a deeper perspective into organisms on the cellular level. Davis' other project on inserting a map of the milky way into the ear of a transgenic mouse with DNA base pairs exposes how intricate but modifiable genetic material is. Inherently, using transgenics or selective breeding as an artistic technique can bring out the scientific beauty that is embedded within life. These type of artistic end...
Post a Comment
Read more

Event 2: Brainstorming - Empathy

I was extremely intrigued by Professor Vesna's and Cohen's project as it explored communication through brain waves, or electrical signals that can be detected on surfaces of our heads. Since all of our emotions stem from this organ, it makes sense that we'd be able to indirectly compare our mental processes with another person using electroencephalograms. Due to the fact that cephalopods are able to communicate through flashing colors on their body, an octopus was sort of like a "mascot" for this event. Initial set up for the exhibit Octopi crowns were used as electrodes to detect the brain activity and measure waves that are processed wirelessly through a computer program. This technical background ties in with themes from Week 2 (Math + Art), since programming requires mathematical algorithms when completing the task of comparing two different waves in hertz by type and strength. After processing, the computer sends back information to the crowns and...
Post a Comment
Read more