Week 4: Medical Technology and Art

It is amazing to think that something as concrete as medical technology is capable of being an assistant to creating art, something so fluid. From this week’s lecture and resources, I learned that using medical technology as a tool, one can take the human body as a canvas to express oneself through art.

Art is usually either aesthetically pleasing or it causes the audience to feel some sort of emotion. Technological advances allows us to create and view art not only from the outside of the body, but also the internal body. One way of using the human body for art is through using MRIs. Marilene Oliver took MRIs and created 3D sculptures (Abbot, S17). Casini talks about how MRI is seen as a portrait, which is why it can be considered art because it does require photography (Casini, 88).

MRI Art

(http://www.marileneoliver.com/current_projects/currentprojects.html)

Although I can see using MRIs as a form of art, plastic surgery crosses the boundary in my opinion. The objective of plastic surgery used to be mainly for health benefits such as curing someone, but in popular culture now, it is used for enhancing one’s beauty. To me, art should be natural. Like Walter Benjamin states, “Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its

Presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be” (Benjamin, 1936). The reasons for why people use plastic surgery is not an art form because they are following and creating standards for people to follow. Art is about being creative and different, not conformity. Orlan goes through several rounds of plastic surgery to demonstrate how the male artist portrays female beauty. This is so harmful and stressful on the body that, it does not seem like a form of art. The more she works on her body, the more disfigured she appears. I also found it very ironic because in an interview, she says, “my goal was to be different”, but is she being different if she is taking the most notable body parts of these female portraits and placing it on herself (Jeffries, 2009).

Plastic Surgery

(http://www.budapestbylocals.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/plastic_sugery.jpg)

Orlan 

(https://scarlettgoeswest.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/lost-in-narcissus-mirror/)

As far as medical technology and art going hand and hand, I think there is a fine line that should not be crossed because it can become dangerous when used in the wrong ways. Also, I find it debatable whether some medical technologies really can be used to create art or not because it defeats the technologies main purpose and as you work and alter a piece more and more, it holds less essence of art.

Works Cited

Abbott, Wynn. "Feature: Medical Interventions—visual Art Meets Medical Technology." The Lancet 368 (2006): S17-18. Web.

Bejamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” 1936. Web.

Casini, Silvia. "Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts." Configurations: 73-99. Web.

Jeffries, Stuart. "Orlan's Art of Sex and Surgery." The Guardian. The Guardian, 1 July 2009. Web.

"Orlan." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web.

UConlineprogram. “Medicine pt1-pt3.” Youtube. Youtube, 21 April 2012. Web.