MedTech + Art



Medicine and art

     Diane Gromala explains how she suffers from chronic pain and how that drives her interest in the senses. Her artwork which depicts roadkill as an art was interesting however I didn’t necessarily enjoy or feel comfortable with this type of art. I suppose it wasn’t necessarily designed to be a pleasant response as much as it was meant to induce a strong reaction. She also shares her experience with virtual reality and the senses which help a person focus on certain parts of their body.

     
     This also relates in some ways to how the artist Orlan shares her experience with plastic surgery and incites a reaction from the viewer even though it may not be pleasant. Her work makes the viewer more aware of their body as they watch her alter hers. I found myself often wanting to look away because I have never been comfortable with the idea of surgeries of any kind. Despite this, her work does make me see how the body is made of components and how these parts aren’t as unalterable as I may have thought. With our current scientific knowledge, doctors/surgeons know enough about the body that they can alter, repair, or replace any part.

    
     I found “The Architecture of Life” by Ingber most interesting because it relates the structure of living things to architecture. The author discusses tensegrity which is an architectural term where forces of tension and compression are balanced. Biological examples are given such as cells or the skeletal system, where tensegrity is common to find. This type of architecture inspires many works in buildings such as in a geodesic dome as shown below. I related this to how as an engineering student, I have learned that many scientific advancements were made by mimicking structures found in biology.




References

Carnal Art. Perf. Orlan. Carnal Art. N.p., 2001. Web.

Gromala, Diane, perf. Curative Powers of Wet, Raw Beauty. 2011. Video.  <http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cRdarMz–Pw>.

Ingber, Donald E. “The Architecture of Life.” Scientific American 278.1 (1998): 48-57. Web.

"Tension and Integrity - Tensegrity a Balance of Tension Members." Anatomy Trains. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2017.


Vesna, Victoria. Medicine Parts 1-3 Lecture. Video. April 2017.

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