Week4: MedTech + Art

This week’s topic is the interaction and connection between medicine, technology and art. In Professor Vesna’s lecture video, x-ray intrigued me the most.  

To begin, this week’s topic is particularly interesting to me, because my father is a doctor and most of his close friends are doctors, each in different area. As a result, from my childhood, I was exposed to all different types of medical terms, performances and technologies. I am especially fascinated with X-Ray more than the other medical technologies, because I have numerous experiences with X-Ray. Like Professor Vesna mentioned in her video, I was examined by x-ray in the airport and my luggage was also examined. Because I am an international student, this is a routine procedure for me each break that I go back to my country to see my family. Also, from childhood, my ankles and wrists used to hurt a lot and as a result I took x-ray pretty often. Hence, x-ray was and is somewhat inseparable from my life. Despite all these experiences, until this week, I never think about connecting x-ray to art. Actually, I did not know medical technologies can be used by artists in their works.

Then, I did some research in x-ray’s involvement in art. According to website called XRAYPICS, x-ray has been used as art from about 100 years ago, when x-ray machines became available for use. Benedetta Bonichi, an Italian artist, did a really good job in using x-ray as art. In her one of work, L’Araba Fenice, it shows a mixture of woman and a bird with its posture and slim waist and its beak. Being in x-ray form helps this creature to be in-between human and bird, because it does not clearly show its outer appearance. In her other work, Sposi, a couple is celebrating their marriage with foods and wine. This piece looks like an art piece solely because it is in x-ray form. If it was a photograph of a couple of their outer appearance, it would not have been appreciated by people. She has many other works that involves x-rays and all of those clearly shows her creativity of collaborating medical technologies with art.

L'Araba Fenice

Sposi

This week’s lecture really introduced me to the new world. Despite loving drawing, I did not enjoy looking at art pieces, because it was very boring. However, after watching the lecture video, I researched for numerous art works that involve medical technologies and I really enjoyed looking at those works. I think from now on, whenever I visit hospital, I will start thinking about how each technology can be used to create art works.

Resources:

"Arts." neo-ren, n.d., http://neo-ren.com/arts/. Accessed 30 Apr. 2017.

HBAgency. Boston's One-Stop B2B Marketing Agency, n.d., http://www.hbagency.com/markets/medical-tech/. Accessed 30 Apr. 2017

Hightower, Nancy. “The Beautiful Macabre: The Work of Benedetta Bonichi.” Weird Fiction Review, 30 Jul 2013, http://weirdfictionreview.com/2013/08/the-beautiful-macabre-the-work-of-benedetta-bonichi/. Accessed 30 Apr. 2017.

"How Do X-Ray Machines Work?" Tech-FAQ, n.d., http://www.tech-faq.com/how-do-x-ray-machines-work.html. Accessed 30 Apr. 2017.

Tompkins, Heather. “Benedetta Bonichi’s X-Ray Art.” STREETANATOMY, 13 Oct. 2011, http://streetanatomy.com/2011/10/13/benedetta-bonichis-x-ray-art/. Accessed 30 Apr. 2017.

Vesna, Victoria. “Body Medicine intro.” YouTube, uploaded by uconlineprogram, 21 Apr 2012,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEgn-fZQ8po. Accessed 30 Apr. 2017.

Vesna, Victoria. “Medicine pt2.” YouTube, uploaded by uconlineprogram, 21 Apr 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psjnQarHOqQ. Accessed 30 Apr. 2017.

“XRAPICS.” Wordpress, n.d., https://xraypics.wordpress.com/history-of-x-ray-art-and-artists/. Accessed 30 Apr. 2017.