Unit 4 - Medicine and Art

This week, we learned about the human body and how artists have had a fascination with it since the beginning of recorded history. The complexity and intricate design of the body has fascinated humans, for the simple reason that we love learning more about ourselves. It was interesting to me how Professor Vesna was talking about how hospitals used to be places of art, and how people saw healing as a form of art and felt like developing technology and science had no place there. As different technologies (including X-Rays, CAT scans, and MRIs), surgeries, and medical science advance, they have obviously been incorporated into hospitals, but have also been ingrained into the artistic world. With studies like the Human Genome Project and the Visible Human Project, artists are able to take real, viable data and apply it to their projects in unique and interacting ways.

There is beauty even in the construction of our bodies

From Donald Ingber's article, "The Architecture of Life," I learned about the type of architecture called tensegrity, which he describes as, "a system that stabilizes itself mechanically because of the way in which tensional and compressive forces are distributed and balanced within the
structure." (48) I found this idea fascinating, and am astounded by thinking about how molecules self-assemble into cells, tissues, muscles, and bones, creating beautiful creations. The fact that a body is driven by different genes in an embryo to assemble themselves into a full human body is incredible. This article has expanded my view of how beautiful the body can be, and how science has expanded that beauty by letting us non-invasively see inside ourselves.

I also learned about the Hippocratic Oath, which has been passed down since Hippocrates, an ancient Greek philosopher and "father of medicine." I found it interesting that in the oath, it states, "I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug." I had never known that the medical community, in which almost 100% of medical school graduates swear to this oath, valued the artistic side of medicine this much. I can see this emotional and sympathetic aspect to medicine present in many of the doctors I've had throughout my life, and have seen how that can many times that kind of care can be even more valuable than medication.

What I found interesting in Diana Gromala's Ted Talk was her usage of technology, specifically virtual reality modules, to heal her own chronic pain. She has used her degrees in interactive art and computer science to create compelling intersections between health sciences and art, including fonts that react to the breathing patterns and skin reaction of humans, a virtual reality module based on her own MRI, and a jellyfish meditation virtual program that allows the patient to meditate effectively. She believes that the jellyfish serves as an inner mirror, and enables awareness and helps focus inward. I believe that this holds great implications for the future of our understanding of mental health issues, and serves of an example of how art can be used in a therapeutic and medically valuable way.

Orlan uses plastic surgery to create
art that critiques and exposes
how we view the body

Orlan is a French artist who has been doing performance art using her body since the 1990s. She engages in surgical procedures that were streamed live and recorded, and has engaged in 9 performance procedures, including adding horns to her head (pictured to the left), getting swollen lips, and making her skin translucent. Her art is controversial and cutting-edge, but I believe that she has maybe gone too far in her manipulation of the body. I understand that she is pushing the envelope and desires to make people uncomfortable, but I think that the body naturally desires to survive and be healthy, and I see these extraneous surgeries as counter to that goal. When art borders on actual danger to the humans they seek to depict, I believe it shouldn't happen.

Overall, it is clear that medicine was actually born of art, but with the introduction of new technologies that association isn't so clear. I see art as a new frontier of healing and medicinal solutions for many illnesses, especially mental, and I look forward to seeing how medical professionals and artists continue to bring them together. However, I feel that the body should not be extremely manipulated, and that an appropriate caution should be taken when creating art with actual human bodies.

Citations

Calvetti, Leonello. "Human Foot Anatomy Showing Skin, Veins by Leonello Calvetti." Fine Art America. N.p., 7 July 2013. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.

Glatter, Robert. "Can Studying Art Help Medical Students Become Better Doctors?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 20 Oct. 2013. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.

Gromala, Diana. "TEDxAmericanRiviera - Diane Gromala - Curative Powers of Wet, Raw Beauty." YouTube. TedX, 7 Dec. 2011. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.

Ingber, Donald E. "The Architecture of Life." Scientific American Jan. 1998: 48-57. Web.

Panda, Sadhu C. "Medicine: Science or Art?" Mens Sana Monographs. Medknow Publications, 2006. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.

Pescarmona, Denee. "Who Is Orlan?" English 114EM. University of California, Santa Barbara, 2003. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.

Tyson, Peter. "The Hippocratic Oath Today." PBS. PBS, 27 Mar. 2001. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.

Vesna, Victoria. "Medicine Pt1." YouTube. UC Online, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.

Vesna, Victoria. "Medicine Pt2." YouTube. UC Online, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.

Vesna, Victoria. "Medicine Pt3." YouTube. UC Online, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.