I have always seen medicine as an art, and the lectures this week really enforced that sentiment, helping to elucidate the history and progression made in the field of medicine. I've also touched on the fact that art often tries to explain mysteries and unknown variables -- the same holds true for medicine, as humans have long been fascinated with "insecurity we have around disease in our body", and explaining the origins and proliferation of such diseases.
Professor Vesna began lecture by dating medicine back to the time of human dissections and when anatomical drawings first emerged, citing dissections and preservations of the body through mummification by the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. Fast forward a few hundred years, and Andreas Visaleus' "On the Human Anatomy" revolutionized the field in 1543, as it was the first time the treatment of disease was rooted in the accurate representation of the physical body. It was during this time that medicine began to transition away from the realm of magic, fantasy, and other-wordly powers and instead found its roots in observable science.
As humans begin to understand more and more about there machinery and anatomy, there is a natural tendency to share this knowledge with others. Both artists and scientists have been at the forefront of this new education, as evidenced through Professor Gunther von Hagens' "Body Worlds", a traveling exhibition of human bodies and body parts preserved using plastination. Another similar project is the Visible Human Project, which compiles cross-sections of the human body in order to visualize human anatomy. These projects are important not only for medicine and the advancement of science, but for humans to understand more about their bodies' internal structures.
Advancing beyond body parts and cross-sections, scientists in medicine are now delving into even more basic building blocks, at the level of cells, organelles, and genetic information. The Human Genome Project was conducted between 1990 and 2001 with a goal of identifying all ~25,000 genes in human DNA and deconstructing the 3 billion sequences of chemical base pairs that make up that DNA. With advancements in microbiology, even more knowledge of the body is now known, but infinite questions remain.
It is understandable that artists and cultures had a hard time transitioning to accept these new methods in medicine. Long considered an art, many considered the rise of X-Rays, CAT Scans, and MRIs to be "cheating" the art with machinery, as if the magic of medicine were ripped out by innovative mechanics. However, modern artists have embraced these new technologies and used them as methods to introduce novel works of art, sometimes using their own bodies as canvases.
Orlan is a cutting-edge artist who aims to stir up discussions revolving around the definition of beauty through personal body performance art. She challenges her viewers to question what does it mean to be beautiful and to age, while also inspiring them to thing about how much they are in control of their looks and how they are perceived. She is able to do so due to modern medicine and the advent of plastic surgery. Her performance art has thus far comprised itself of 9 cosmetic surgeries, each with a theme that she develops, with the aim to embody visions of beauty created by renowned painters throughout history via replication of facial features (Boucher's Europa (lips), Bottticelli's Venus (nose), Mona Lisa (forehead), Diana (eyes), etc.
I found it very interesting and thought-provoking that Orlan uses her body as a present-day representation of beauty, with inspiration drawn from classic, cultural "definitions" of beauty. While I think non-humanistic, purely reasoning-based point of view, it makes sense that adding 9 "beautiful" features together can result in the ultimate representation of beauty due to additive principles, Orlan highlights that beauty is not something that can be defined, and that beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. While humans may have a newfound so-called control of the image they project to others, be it through anti-aging products, plastic surgery, or prosthetics, beauty and artistic relevance is still dependent on the viewer, and one cannot control everything.
Another perspective on medicine and technology relative to art is artists' desire to use technologies to create physical representations of previously unimaginable feats. Humans have long dreamt of having robotic arms, the ability to open doors without actually touching any doors, and the ability to see virtual realities. Artists are using their bodies and talents to showcase these advancements in medicine, with examples by Professor Warwick's implanted chip and Diane Gromala's virtual reality googles.
Sources:
Gromala, Diane. "Transforming Pain: Virtual Reality." Transforming Pain. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 July 2014. <http://www.confrontingpain.com/projects/vr/>.
Orlan. "Orlan - Performance." Orlan. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 July 2014. <http://www.orlan.eu/works/performance-2/>.
"UCLA Hand Transplant." N.p., n.d. Web. 8 July 2014. <http://transplants.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=116>.
Vesalius, Andreas, William Frank. Richardson, and John Burd. Carman. On the Fabric of the Human Body. San Francisco: Norman Pub., 1999. Print.
Vesna, Victoria. "Human Body & Medical Technologies, Part 2." N.p., n.d. Web. 6 July 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psjnQarHOqQ>.
As humans begin to understand more and more about there machinery and anatomy, there is a natural tendency to share this knowledge with others. Both artists and scientists have been at the forefront of this new education, as evidenced through Professor Gunther von Hagens' "Body Worlds", a traveling exhibition of human bodies and body parts preserved using plastination. Another similar project is the Visible Human Project, which compiles cross-sections of the human body in order to visualize human anatomy. These projects are important not only for medicine and the advancement of science, but for humans to understand more about their bodies' internal structures.
Advancing beyond body parts and cross-sections, scientists in medicine are now delving into even more basic building blocks, at the level of cells, organelles, and genetic information. The Human Genome Project was conducted between 1990 and 2001 with a goal of identifying all ~25,000 genes in human DNA and deconstructing the 3 billion sequences of chemical base pairs that make up that DNA. With advancements in microbiology, even more knowledge of the body is now known, but infinite questions remain.
It is understandable that artists and cultures had a hard time transitioning to accept these new methods in medicine. Long considered an art, many considered the rise of X-Rays, CAT Scans, and MRIs to be "cheating" the art with machinery, as if the magic of medicine were ripped out by innovative mechanics. However, modern artists have embraced these new technologies and used them as methods to introduce novel works of art, sometimes using their own bodies as canvases.
Orlan is a cutting-edge artist who aims to stir up discussions revolving around the definition of beauty through personal body performance art. She challenges her viewers to question what does it mean to be beautiful and to age, while also inspiring them to thing about how much they are in control of their looks and how they are perceived. She is able to do so due to modern medicine and the advent of plastic surgery. Her performance art has thus far comprised itself of 9 cosmetic surgeries, each with a theme that she develops, with the aim to embody visions of beauty created by renowned painters throughout history via replication of facial features (Boucher's Europa (lips), Bottticelli's Venus (nose), Mona Lisa (forehead), Diana (eyes), etc.
I found it very interesting and thought-provoking that Orlan uses her body as a present-day representation of beauty, with inspiration drawn from classic, cultural "definitions" of beauty. While I think non-humanistic, purely reasoning-based point of view, it makes sense that adding 9 "beautiful" features together can result in the ultimate representation of beauty due to additive principles, Orlan highlights that beauty is not something that can be defined, and that beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. While humans may have a newfound so-called control of the image they project to others, be it through anti-aging products, plastic surgery, or prosthetics, beauty and artistic relevance is still dependent on the viewer, and one cannot control everything.
Another perspective on medicine and technology relative to art is artists' desire to use technologies to create physical representations of previously unimaginable feats. Humans have long dreamt of having robotic arms, the ability to open doors without actually touching any doors, and the ability to see virtual realities. Artists are using their bodies and talents to showcase these advancements in medicine, with examples by Professor Warwick's implanted chip and Diane Gromala's virtual reality googles.
Sources:
Gromala, Diane. "Transforming Pain: Virtual Reality." Transforming Pain. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 July 2014. <http://www.confrontingpain.com/projects/vr/>.
Orlan. "Orlan - Performance." Orlan. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 July 2014. <http://www.orlan.eu/works/performance-2/>.
"UCLA Hand Transplant." N.p., n.d. Web. 8 July 2014. <http://transplants.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=116>.
Vesalius, Andreas, William Frank. Richardson, and John Burd. Carman. On the Fabric of the Human Body. San Francisco: Norman Pub., 1999. Print.
Vesna, Victoria. "Human Body & Medical Technologies, Part 2." N.p., n.d. Web. 6 July 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psjnQarHOqQ>.
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