Week 4: Medicine + Technology + Art

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 Artwork inspired by MRI brain scans installed at Stanford imaging center – Stanford Arts

 When it comes to my own personal experiences with medical technologies in relation to art, the first thing that pops into mind is the MRI. A lot of the resources I have seen, discuss MRI's and other brain imagery to be useful in finding a sense of beauty in what can otherwise be seen as a scary process. My sister, when we were really young, had to get an MRI. The process was indeed intimidating, and the prospect of finding out bad news was anxiety-inducing. Thus, it makes sense why some artists find beauty and a means for creativity within MRI's (Donald, 2013; Brain Health, 2017). 

Artwork inspired by MRI brain scans ...

I think an interesting intersection between medicine, art, and technology is prosthetics. In the article "The Art of Designer Artificial Limbs" by Morin, it is explained how hyper-realistic prosthetics are not only created under a process of rigorous design, but there are also elaborate ways to reflect the wearers personality. The prosthetic thus become vessels for the human body to as a modern advancement to medicine, technology and art.

Children with and/or in need for prosthetics are a special demographic in this topic, as children often express creativity in ways that adults do not. In research conducted aimed at showing the limits of prosthetic design, children were asked to create prosthetic designs (Kester, 2019). A lot of what was drawn, it demonstrated how prosthetic design can reach new heights by simply thinking outside the box of what is completely medically necessary.

 The Art of Designer Artificial Limbs ...

Images:

Image #1: Marty Kelly, Stanford 

Image #2: Marty Kelly, Stanford

Image #3: Morin, 2014

Resources:

Artist with MS Turns Her Brain Scans into Beautiful Works of Art, Baylor Scott & White , 2017, www.bswhealth.com/blog/artist-ms-turns-brain-scans-beautiful-works-art.

Casini, Silvia. “Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as mirror and portrait: MRI configurations between science and the Arts.” Configurations, vol. 19, no. 1, Dec. 2011, pp. 73–99, https://doi.org/10.1353/con.2011.0008.

Donald, Brooke. Stanford Arts, 18 June 2013, arts.stanford.edu/artwork-inspired-by-mri-brain-scans-installed-at-stanford-imaging-center/.

Kester. “Aesthetic Prosthetic Bionics - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding.” Crunchbase, 2019, www.crunchbase.com/organization/aesthetic-prosthetic-bionics.

Morin, Roc. “The Art of Designer Artificial Limbs.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 21 Jan. 2014, www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/01/the-art-of-designer-artificial-limbs/282800/.

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