Professor Vesna starts this week’s topic by introducing to us idea that as technology progresses so does our perception of our bodies as well (Vesna Lecture 4). As a reoccurring theme in the course, we see how art is assisting in the progression of other fields of study and this week it’s medicine and technology. We have learned of various artists and medical practitioners who have contributed to this movement such as Orlan and Henry Gray. Orlan went through actual surgical procedures to recreate beauty while Henry Gray provided body visuals for the medical community. We see other artists starting to change the perception of certain medical procedures and assistance to be something unique and highly interesting as well. For example, Marc Ecko has completely transformed the image of having a prosthetic limb. He showed others it can be a canvas therefore changing the empathetic perception of having a prosthetic limb usually entails.

We see the importance of art slowly making its way into the evaluation of potential medical students. Robert Glatter discusses how medical schools valued critical thinking, but brings up an argument in which “right brain characteristics may actually hold greater value in the eyes of some experts” (Glatter 2013). He states that exhibiting right brain qualities helps individual’s succeed in the developing world of medicine because visual imagery. The digital world is becoming the main tool of diagnosing an individual (Glatter 2013). We see this to be true with the introduction and constant development of the MRI and CT scans.

The integration of art into medicine and technology contributes to a larger system that helps society develop and function. We can tie this into Donald Ingber’s article The Architecture of Life (1997). He goes into detail of self-assembly and tensegrity structures. Effecting one aspect of the structure/system will affect the other parts that make up the whole structure (Ingber 1997). He outlines the connectivity of individual parts working harmoniously to take on constant change and transforming to become something new. Tying this back to art and medicine, we see how if either art or medicine advances so the other does.

A prime example presented in class is the Hippocratic Oath (Tyson 2001). We see how the classic oath has transformed to include this assistance of medical suicide but still upholding much of the classic values. Additionally Tyson’s article gives us percentages of different variations of medical oaths (2001). 

Citiations:

Glatter, Robert. "Can Studying Art Help Medical Students Become Better Doctors?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 20 Oct. 2013. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertglatter/2013/10/20/can-studying-art-help-medical-students-become-better-doctors/3/>.

Ingber, Donald. "The Architecture of LIfe." Scientific American (1998): 48-57. Print.

Tyson, Peter. "The Hippocratic Oath Today." PBS. PBS, 27 Mar. 2001. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/hippocratic-oath-today.html>.

Templeton, Graham. "World’s Most Powerful MRI Can Lift a Tank like Magneto, or See Deep into Your Brain | ExtremeTech." ExtremeTech. 25 Oct. 2013. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/169526-worlds-most-powerful-mri-can-lift-a-tank-like-magneto-or-see-deep-into-your-brain>.

"TENSEGRITY." Simple Tensegrity Structures. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.tensegriteit.nl/e-simple.html>.

"Tuvie." Tuvie Ecko Prosthetic Leg Project Modern and Stylish Artistic Prosthetic Leg for Graffiti Artists Comments. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.tuvie.com/ecko-prosthetic-leg-project-modern-and-stylish-artistic-prosthetic-leg-for-graffiti-artists/>.