It is fascinating to observe the parabola of the dichotomy between arts and sciences through the lenses of medicine. How technologies were introduced in hospitals only relatively recently, at the beginning of the 20th century, because of the notion of medicine regarded as an art capable of successfully being carried out exclusively by hand. Technology was seen as a hindrance that would get in the way of doctors’ “supreme” and “artistic” abilities (Vesna). Fast forward a hundred years, technology is now the medium through which art is expressed in medicine.
Depiction of Past Medical Dissection
Modern examples include the not so modern plastic surgery. Although, the latter has been around for more than 4,000 years, the wars of the previous century made plastic surgery necessary. Today, as we adopt plastic surgery almost playfully, many artists have decided to implement these practices in their artworks, trying to engage in a debate about beauty standards and ageing. French Artist Orlan, for instance, through what she defines as “carnal art”, questions the social phenomena of our time talking about how much we truly are in control of how we look.
Orlan while performing
The fast-changing technology-based relationship between arts and sciences is therefore inevitable. Peter Tyson, in his article “The Hippocratic Oath Today”, conveys precisely this idea through the example of the, once binding now increasingly less so, Hippocratic Oath. The latter, through the years, has been adapted to modern needs, making many purists turn up their noses. The reality is that the Oath “is inadequate to address the realities of a medical world that has witnessed huge scientific, economic, political, and social changes” (Tyson).
Finally, this week’s topic has allowed me to further learn about the intrinsic influence of science in many artistic fields. Firstly, Ingber’s “The Architecture of Life” guided me through the concept of Tensegrity: the architectural system in which structures stabilize themselves by balancing the counteracting forces of compression and tension, giving shape and strength to both natural (our cells) and artificial forms (building and sculptures). Lastly, my compatriot, Silvia Casini, put me into a different perspective mentioning how the useful resource of Magnetic Resonance Imaging is truthfully so much more, as she defines it as technology that “has a look in the same way that the portrait has— that is, it has the capacity of being performative, thus resisting its being regarded as a transparent window onto the self” (Casini 73).
Buckminster Fuller holds a Tensegrity Sphere
Citations:
Vesna, Victoria. Lecture Videos Week 4. Canvas, 2022.
Orlan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlan - http://www.orlan.eu
Tyson, Peter. “Hippocratic Oath Today”. Nova, 2016.
Ingber, Donald. “The Architecture of Life”. Scientific American Inc., 1998, page 49.
Casini, Silvia. “Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts”. John Hopkins University Press and the Society for Literature and Science, Configurations, 2011, page 73.
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