DESMA 9 Week 4 | Medicine + Technology + Art

Out of the topics we have covered so far, I was surprised to see how medicine and art can work together, since I feel like prior to going over this week’s content, I would have never expected medicine and art to have much to do with one another. What stood out to me the most from this week was the idea of tensegrity models being used to model cells, which Donald E. Ingber mentioned in “The Architecture of Life”. Additionally, it was interesting to read about the mechanical and architectural comparisons with bodily functions and design. 


Tensegrity Model of Cell



Further, the influx of technology, art, and medicine that Professor Vesna talked about in lecture, particularly with reference to Eduardo Kac and Kevin Warwick provided an insight into how the human body can serve as a vessel for technology based artistic exploration. This is something that is reflected in popular media as well, for instance with RoboCop, which takes these ideas to the next level, by exploring a hypothetical situation with cyborg police, which allows for a human-like figure without the physical drawbacks of a human body. 


RoboCop


In lecture we also got to learn about art projects such as Body Worlds and The Visible Human Project. Such projects really explore the details and intricacies of the human body by combining medical technology, such as the preservation techniques like plastination, with artistic vision that allows people to gain an appreciation for the human body. In our daily lives, until we really need to care about a medical condition, we tend to take our bodies for granted, never really understanding the beauty and complexity of the human body, and it seems like such projects allow us to gain an insight into these details that we may otherwise ignore.


Lastly, I felt like the comparison of an MRI machine to an acoustic mirror by Silvia Casini in our reading was pretty interesting, particularly due to the fact that an MRI is usually considered an unpleasant and uncomfortable experience due to its claustrophobic nature. On the other hand, traditionally, a mirror is something that people are fond of, as it allows one to notice and appreciate themselves. This comparison almost seems like a juxtaposition of feelings and experiences, but reading about the experience that Casini entailed provided a new perspective that went over not just the physical aspect of the machine but also the aural and visual aspects, which was interesting to read about.


MRI Machine


Sources:

  1. Casini, Silvia. “Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as mirror and portrait: MRI configurations between science and the arts.” Configurations vol. 19,1 (2011): 73-99. doi:10.1353/con.2011.0008

  2. Ingber, D E. “The architecture of life.” Scientific American vol. 278,1 (1998): 48-57. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0198-48

  3. Vesna, Victoria. “Human Body and Medical Technologies Part 1”. UCLA DESMA 9 Art Science and Technology Spring 2022, Week 4.

  4. Vesna, Victoria. “Human Body and Medical Technologies Part 4”. UCLA DESMA 9 Art Science and Technology Spring 2022, Week 4.

  5. “Robocop Movie Trailer (1987) - Youtube.” YouTube, 1 Nov. 2007, www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mLmHUbC240. 

  6. Zappetti, D., et al. “Bio-Inspired Tensegrity Soft Modular Robots.” ArXiv.org, 23 Aug. 2017, arxiv.org/abs/1703.10139. (Source for image of tensegrity model)

  7. Aguirre, Josie. “Robocop (1987).” REPLICANT, University of Michigan, websites.umich.edu/~engb415/film/robocop.html. (Source for image of RoboCop)

  8. “MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) − Radiology & Imaging: HSS.” Hospital for Special Surgery, www.hss.edu/condition-list_mri-magnetic-resonance-imaging.asp.  (Source for image of MRI)

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