Week 4: Medtech and Art

The Hippocratic Oath
taken by doctors to do no harm

It is interesting how medicine is considered an art form, as it involves doctors having a human connection to their patients, causing for the introduction of technology towards medical practice to become seemingly unacceptable at first. Yet the practice of medicine is treated as an art, in the minds of doctors who take the Hippocratic oath. Drawing back to the two cultures we learned about, this seems to be another indication of how separation began, with technology and art. This concept also further emphasizes an understanding of art as a tool for human connection, distinguishing it from mere entertainment, although it can be said that the greatest forms of entertainment appeal to the human psyche.

In that sense, if human connection is the goal of art, what better method of representation is there than using the materials that make up the body itself? Through Body Worlds, human plastinates are placed in many different poses, yet this all serves a greater purpose of teaching about disease, physiology, the effects of living in poor health. This art connects people viewing it, to the systems taking place in themselves, bringing them to a deeper physical connection to their own bodies.

Body Worlds Art Exhibit:
Plastinated tissue used to convey
messages about human body

Sculptures seem to serve as another form of visual representation of the human condition. Tensegrity balances compression and tension, seemingly like the body’s own mechanisms in signaling cells to maintain homeostasis. Funnily enough, I seem to believe that this also plays a role in human life, which is not as deeply mentioned in the Architecture of Life article. Human life faces daily existing pre-stress, known as the social conditions in which they exist. Through changing social conditions, or unpredicted natural disasters, greater stress is placed onto societies and it moves in a direction to prevent the stress from overwhelming them.

Balance of shapes, based on their position
considering tension and compression

Sources:

“BODY WORLDS: Frequently Asked Questions.” California Science Center, 18 May 2017, californiasciencecenter.org/about/press-room/press-releases/body-worlds-frequently-asked-questions.

Online, UC. “Medicine pt2.” YouTube, YouTube, 21 Apr. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=psjnQarHOqQ.

“The Hippocratic Oath Today.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/hippocratic-oath-today/.

Casini S. (2011). Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as mirror and portrait: MRI configurations between science and the arts. Configurations 19, 73–99 10.1353/con.2011.0008

E. Ingber, Donald. (1998). The Architecture of Life. Scientific American. 278. 48-57. 10.1038/scientificamerican0198-48.

“BODY WORLDS: Frequently Asked Questions.” California Science Center, 18 May 2017, californiasciencecenter.org/about/press-room/press-releases/body-worlds-frequently-asked-questions.

Online, UC. “Medicine pt2.” YouTube, YouTube, 21 Apr. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=psjnQarHOqQ.

“The Hippocratic Oath Today.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/hippocratic-oath-today/.

“BODY WORLDS: Frequently Asked Questions.” California Science Center, 18 May 2017, californiasciencecenter.org/about/press-room/press-releases/body-worlds-frequently-asked-questions.

Online, UC. “Medicine pt2.” YouTube, YouTube, 21 Apr. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=psjnQarHOqQ.

“The Hippocratic Oath Today.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/hippocratic-oath-today/.