Week 4: MedTech + Art

Medical Sciences and Art never appeared to me to be intertwined; however, after this week's lecture I have experienced a drastic change in my perspective.  It's not as if the two fields work together, but rather they affect each other in many different ways.

The most impactful form of this being, in my opinion, arts affect on plastic surgery.  Plastic surgery can be very useful sometimes, especially for victims of injuries or disease.  I don't always look down upon it especially for cases like the ones previously listed; however, this medicinal form has changed drastically over the past thousands of years since it was created in b.c India and is being taken advantage of.  Plastic surgery is being used by many people who solely seek to make themselves appear more beautiful.  While medicinal practices have had a relatively positive impact on art, I believe that it has had a negative impact on this specific form of medicine.  In artwork, a majority of the people represented in paintings are perfect, beautiful images of said person.  In some ways, this gives off the impression that unless you look like this perfect person in the painting, then you are viewed as ugly.  This has lead people getting plastic surgery and trying to look as "beautiful" as possible; however, this surgery just goes against the beauty of naturalness in nature.  The concept of being beautiful was created by humanity and has no power.  People don't need to get surgery to be beautiful but rather just be yourself.

Even though some forms of medicine contradict nature, medicine and technology related with medicine have had a very positive impact on artwork.  For example, the MRI scan was a massive breakthrough for both scientists and artists.   Not only would the creation of the MRI save millions of lives, but it would also give artists a clear picture of what the internal workings of the human body truly looks like.  In some ways, an MRI scan is the most natural art display of human body.  It takes away the color and emotion from the human body, strips away the background, and instead displays an image only consisting  of black and white lines revealing the true, unique image of the human body.  Similarly to the MRI, X-Rays have also given us a glimpse inside the human body and have provided artists with tools they need to make human paintings even more realistic and amazing.

MRI Scan of the Human Brain

Medicinal Technology is proving us with a pathway into the human mind.  This is similar to the way in which some forms of artwork that cause us to retreat into our minds and think about who we are.  The problems that we create medicine to solve are in their own ways artwork.  The ways in which our nerves send messages to our brain or the way in which we perform rigorous surgeries to save peoples lives are all amazing feats that are beautiful forms of art in their own respects.  Medicinal practices are just another form of artwork in my perspective.

Surgery for a Doctor is his way of expressing himself
in a similar way to how artists express themselves
on a canvas

Works Cited

Berlet, Dr. Anthony. Apexart :: Dr. Anthony Berlet :: I Am Art - An Expression of the Visual & Artistic Process of Plastic Surgery, I Am Art, apexart.org/exhibitions/berlet.htm. 

Casini, and Silvia. “The Aesthetics of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): from the Scientific Laboratory to an Artwork.” Contemporary Aesthetics, Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 1 Jan. 1970, quod.lib.umich.edu/c/ca/7523862.0008.022/--aesthetics-of-magnetic-resonance-imaging-mri?rgn=main%3Bview. 

Choi, Jeongho. “Cosmetic Surgery: It Is Art or Science?” Archives of Plastic Surgery, The Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, Sept. 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4579193/. 

“History of X-Ray Art and Artists.” Xraypics, 27 Jan. 2018, xraypics.wordpress.com/history-of-x-ray-art-and-artists/. 

Worth, Tammy. “Extreme Plastic Surgery: How Much Is Too Much?” WebMD, WebMD, www.webmd.com/beauty/features/extreme-plastic-surgery-how-much-is-too-much#1.