Week 4: Medicine+Technology+Art

"Yuriko Yamaguchi: Interconnected in Art, Nature,
Science and Technology" Installation image. "

Medicine, Technology, Art?? I would have never thought of combining these three completely different genres under one umbrella. However, despite the personal lack of experience I had within my limited knowledge about sciences, I came to find out that Science was always depicted as Art, and that the standard was only changing from a more traditional perspective to a more modern one.

In her lecture, Dr. Vesna indicates that Medicine was traditionally considered as art, and the use of tools/technology within medicine was not to be practiced by “true doctors”. On the other hand, Dr. Vesna describes the drastic transitioning of ideas as Modern days the Medical Tools/technology is practiced by “true doctors”, and that those mechanisms are actually artistic. A foundation cultural-transition of medicine is also expressed in Peter Tyson’s article where Dr. David Graham points out that the traditional “Oath” of Medicine was heavier as a sort of a covenant binding to an inherent treaty in medicine.  However, Graham compares such traditionalism to modernism as many modern oaths have more bland nature with a generalized concept of “best wishes” about them.

MRI art- Bunge Lab Berkelely

Virgil Wong's 3D Anatomy App

Although Graham’s translations of the cultural transition was rather pessimistic, we can definitely understand that the modern scientists definitely have a contrastingly different interpretation of Medical Science and technology expressed artistically, disparate from the traditional ideas. Silvia Casini realistically compares modern MRI with the concept of the Portrait art, as having “parallel looks”; with both being performative, but resistant to being regarded as transparent windows. However, the two diverse yet parallel genres have different artistic values as MRI has a more “acoustic” artistic expressions but the Portrait has a more “visual” artistic expression.

Moreover, Donald E. Ingber goes further into interconnecting Medical Science with Art as Ingber states that the design of the organic structures of the natural life creates a design of natural order so complex and artistically significant, that it shall be considered visually artistic. By directly implying the natural order of science to art, Ingber completely interrelates two such distinct concepts under one translational bubble.

Conclusively, I came to realize that art can be found in basically any fundamental and physical existence in the world. As Virgil Wong used artistic 3D Anatomical bodies to fulfill both fields of Arts and Sciences through his works, modern technology opened a new era for Medical Sciences within its bond with the beautiful outlook as “Art”.

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Sources

Bunge, Silvia A. "MRI Recollection, Bunge Lab." Bunge Lab, Building Blocks of Cognition. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2016. <http://bungelab.berkeley.edu/principal-investigator/>.

Casini, Silvia. "Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts." Configurations 19.1 (2011): 73-99. Ca Foscari Universita Di Venezia. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.

"Emory University School of MedicineRad Report." 31st Annual Weens Lecture: Health Time Machines- How a 3-D Selfie Can Help You Get Healthy. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2016. <http://radiology.emory.edu/about/rad-reports/stories/2014/08/weenslecture/index.html>.

Ingber, Donald E. "The Architecture of Life." Sci Am Scientific American 278.1 (1998): 48-57. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.

Tyson, Peter. "The Hippocratic Oath Today." PBS. PBS, 27 Mar. 2001. Web. 24 Apr. 2016. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/hippocratic-oath-today.html>.

Vesna, Victoria, Dr/Prof. "Medicine Lectures." Course Login UCLA Desma9. Victoria Vesna, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2016. <https://cole2.uconline.edu/courses/484297/pages/unit-4-view?module_item_id=8599397>.

Wong, Virgil. "Virgil Wong | Artist and Health Cognition Researcher, Columbia University | Cofounder and Inventor, Medical Avatar." Virgil Wong. Virgil Wong, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2016. <http://virgilwong.com/>.

Yamaguchi, Yuriko. "Yuriko Yamaguchi." Koplin Del Rio. N.p., 2007. Web. 24 Apr. 2016. <http://www.koplindelrio.com/content/yuriko-yamaguchi>.