Week IV: Medicine and Art

Part of me never thought that medicine and technology ever came together. I couldn’t see a world in which art ever influenced medicine. This week, however, my eyes were opened to the fact that art can really influence the world of medicine. 

Silvia Casini’s essays about MRI’s being a form of art really opened my eyes about how influential art can be. She states in her essays that the sounds that an MRI makes actually the human body react accordingly. Casino argues that the subject becomes much more aware of the wholeness of their bodies. It was interesting to me that the body begins to react so quickly and violently, so to speak. I remember seeing my brother getting an MRI, and I thought to myself how the whole process worked. I didn’t understand how the pieces came together and how they were able to read so many things of my brother’s body so accurately. Now, looking back, I realize how much art has actually influenced it. 

Out of the resources, I think my favorite was the Project Cyborg by Warwick. In the experiment, Kevin Warwick allowed a computer to monitor him as he moved throughout hallways and multiple offices in buildings. Warwick was able to open doors, turn on lights, and do multiple other things without ever moving himself. I thought it was really cool that he used himself as a test so he could accurately depict just how amazing this was. I think this was such a great way of showing a real life possibility of art and medicine coming together. 

Casini, Silvia. "Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts." Configurations19.1 (2011): 73-99. Web.

Donald, Brooke. "Artwork inspired by MRI brain scans installed at Stanford imaging center." Stanford University. N.p., 05 June 2013. Web. 30 Apr. 2017.

Ingber, Donald E. "The Architecture of Life." Scientific American278.1 (1998): 48-57. Web.

Kevin Warwick. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2017.

"9 People Who Have Turned Medical Imaging Into Art." Soliant Health. N.p., 23 July 2013. Web. 30 Apr. 2017.