Skip to main content

Week 4: Medtech + Art


The traveling exhibit of body world brings attention to all the natural beauty present in our human bodies. It uses preserved human bodies and a technique called plastination to show what is present underneath our skin. This show is extremely popular and is able to educate on the anatomy of the body while serving as a work of art. It allows people to see what their bodies are truly doing during movement.


This reminded me of when I was in 6th grade and I had to get an MRI on my knee. I remember being scared and having to lay in the big loud tube. A few weeks later I was presented with the picture of my knee that was able to reveal all my muscles and joints and what was going on beneath what my eye could see. Just how the exhibit of body world was able to expose the human anatomy my MRI did the same thing.

Another interesting form of art resulting from the human body was the visible human project. They uses male and female cadavers where they used sections of the body and then later comparing those sections as though they were symmetrical. There were countless videos and music videos created using these artworks. The most intriguing thing about this art set is whose bodies they used. The male was a 38 year old murderer from Texas who was killed by lethal injection. He wasn't aware what his body was going to be used from but they ended up turning it into something beautiful.
Work Cited

Gannon, Erin. “'Body Worlds' Opens a Window on 'Inner Space'.” OnMilwaukee.com, 18 Jan. 2008, onmilwaukee.com/visitors/articles/bodyworlds.html.

“HOME.” Christophe Luxereau Website : Home, www.luxereau.com/.

“KAC.” KAC, www.ekac.org/.

MRI Knee, www.cedars-sinai.edu/Patients/Programs-and-Services/Imaging-Center/For-Patients/Exams-by-Procedure/MRI/MRI-Knee.aspx.

“The Visible Human Project - Color Cryosections.” U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/photos.html.

Comments

  1. Bella, your blog post this week was very interesting! I love how you decided to take a different approach to the medicine, technology and art topic, through discussing the inner structure and beauty of the human body. Your personal example about the MRI on your knee demonstrates your developed knowledge on the function & purpose of certain bodily elements. Good job!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

week 9: Space + Art

This week we learned about a subject that humans have always been fascinated by: space. Ancient astronomers trying to make sense of everything a named every planet, each planet also had its own meaning. Carl Sagan in his video "The Pale Blue Dot" was instrumental in bringing information of the cosmos to the public eye. In the 17th century astronomers finally created a telescope which began a whole new era for studies. Now when we talk about astronomy it is both on the macro and micro scale, from here we see nanotechnology playing a role in space exploration. In the lecture Professor Vesna discusses the importance of animals in cosmic science. After all they were the first ones to go to space. Russia sent a stray 13 pound mutt up into space and from that they monitored her to see how the body may react differently in space. Although the dog only survived for 6 days and ended up dying after a system failure. It is interesting to me how willing they were to send an animal ...

Week 7: Neuroscience + Art

In this weeks lecture videos professor Vesna describes the fairly new fascination of artists with the brain. She explores the idea of the conscious and unconscious and how our brains behave differently in each of these states. Scientists have been intrigued by the thought of consciousness and how long we as humans have been living a conscious life. Ramon Y. Cajal and Franz Joseph Gall were critical in showing us how the brain looked. Gall created the idea of phrenology and that the shape of someone skull indicated which part of your brain was working the hardest. The idea was later disproven but did provide a basis for future studies. Joseph Gall was credited with understanding the microscopic nature of investigation of the transmission of neural signals and of neuronal degeneration and regeneration. The tree like connection patterns he found are not only beautiful but are also extremely important. 95% of what we dream is forgotten, you dream every single night yet only some nig...