The way in which we see ourselves, our self-portrait, is a
concept that has been artistically portrayed in a plethora of ways by artists. Based
on what I have learned from this week’s topic, I believe that the best self-portrait
is one that depicts who we are beneath the skin. By using medical technology,
these portraits tell the story of our health, which largely defines who we are.
Artist Lisa Nilsson uses a technique called quilling
(rolling and shaping narrow strips of paper) to portray different cross
sections of the body. She claims that quilling is an ideal technique to display
“the densely squished and lovely internal landscape of the human body”. Her art is able to therefore portray an
accurate view of our internal bodies. Below is some of her work.
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| Nilsson's artistic portrayal of internal anatomy. |
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| A closer view of Nilsson's quilling method. |
Visual artist and medical cognition researcher Virgil Wong
uses interactive medical art in hopes that showing people their personal
virtual aging (provided that their current lifestyle habits remain the same)
will encourage them to change their unhealthy habits.
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| An iPhone app shows the health of your future self. |
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| This x-ray of a child shows adult teeth below the gum line. |
I personally found interesting the fact that internal
artistic images not only provide us with certain medical knowledge about
ourselves, but they also have service to us long after we are dead. Forensic
scientists use x-rays of teeth as a means to identify deceased bodies. In this
way, self-portraits of our internal selves that are made possible by medical
technology can be seen as our everlasting, immortal portrait.
Citations:
"Adult Orthodontic Treatment." HubPages.
N.p., n.d. Web. 14 July 2013.
"Digital X-rays." Trenton Dentists. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 14 July 2013.
Jain, Anil
K., and Hong Chen. "Matching of dental X-ray images for human
identification." Pattern recognition 37.7 (2004): 1519-1532.
"Lisa
Nilsson - Tissue Series." Lisa Nilsson - Tissue Series. N.p., n.d.
Web. 14 July 2013.
Hi Nadine,
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you tied art and medicine in your blog for this week. I definitely did not look at the connection between the two the same way as you, You mentioned that the technology that enables us to view our insides is essentially creating a self portrait of ourselves. That's such an interesting point and a great way to tie the two subjects together. Nice blog overall! Looking forward to your next!
Suk
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI think you had some condense and interesting examples related to this week's topic: Medicine, Technology, and Art. I had an example of psycho therapy in my post and it was nice to see a similar example on your post. I used an example of using inkblot cards to determine one's personality and you used an example that showing people aging virtually will encourage them to workout and live healthy. I think especially psychological medical problems has a lot to do with art rather than just physical health problem. Because our mental is more artistic than our physical.
Hello! I really liked the way you explained the idea of a self portrait; I never thought about it that way. It's amazing that technology is advanced enough to show us virtual aging. I think that having such tools at our disposal is very crucial. In our modern world, everything revolves around technology so conveying health issues through this medium is the best way to spread awareness. You did a wonderful job of tying art and medicinal technology together. Thank you for sharing this with us!
ReplyDelete