Week 4: MedTech + Art

For this week, professor talked the topic of medicine is one form of art. The topic is quite interesting because I am a life science student, and I have taken lots of biology classes. Before this week, I’ve never had the idea that medicine is related to art. In the past biology classes, when I learned MIR, x-ray and other technology skills that can depict the anatomy of the human body, I only consider those things as pure science. I never know there are art inside. With the development of technology in the medicine, people can know more inside about human body, and the new technology can bring a new view of art. When people look inside of the body, people can see a beautiful picture of our body. Here is a picture of nervous system.

https://www.reference.com/health/care-nervous-system-1751507e01b6e598

Besides the technology of looking inside of the human body, we can see art in medicine anywhere. Saunders says: “The practice of clinical medicine with its daily judgments is both science and art. In the practice of clinical medicine, the art is not merely art of the medical humanities but is integrated to medicine as an applied science.” Also, Donald E. Ingber explores the architecture of life, and he found human body is use many architecture to build itself. For example, the vertical tensegrity model. Cytoskeletal microfilament stabilize itself through a balance of compression and tension.

The Architecture of Life

S.C. Panda says: “Medicine is both an art and a science. Both are interdependent and inseparable, just like two side of a coin.” The art of medicine is really important because we have to deal with a human being.

Reference 

"How Do You Take Care of Your Nervous System?" Reference. IAC Publishing, n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2017.

              Panda, S.C. "Medicine: Science or Art?" Mens Sana Monographs. Medknow Publications, 2006. Web. 30 Apr. 2017. 
           
           Donald E. Ingber  The Architecture of Life. Scientific American January 1998

  
          Saunders J. The practice of clinical medicine as an art and as a science. Medical Humanities. 2000;26:18–22. Available at:  http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://mhbmjjournalscom/cgi/content/ full/26/01/18 (Date of Access: 18 February 2006) [PubMed]

            William Norman S., editor. Bailey And Love's Short Text Book of Surgery, The Rectum. 24th ed. London: Arnold; pp. 1225–1226.

Event 1: WHAT’S NEXT: Eco Materialism and Contemporary Art

             On April 17, I attended Linda Weintraub’s lecture called “WHAT’S NEXT: Eco Materialism and Contemporary Art”. Linda is an American art writer, educator and curator. She has written some books about contemporary art. Also, she addresses environmental consciousness that defines the ways cultures approach art, science and many aspects. Her lecture at UCLA was at Broad Art Center. There were not so many people attended this lecture, and also we were supplied chips drinks. Those made the lecture great, and I felt like it is a small workshop instead of a large lecture.

             During lecture, Linda talked about several artists and their paintings to illustrate eco materialism and contemporary art. One of the artist was Kazimir Malevich and his painting “White on White”. The painting depicted a white square on the ground. Malevich used many characteristics to represent art with no sense of color, depth, or volume. It was very sample. Like he said: “I have ripped through the blue lampshade of color. I have come out into white. Follow me, comrade aviators, sail on into the depths”, he used the sample square shape and white color to represent a feeling of floating, and the slight tilt of square suggests movement.

            Another point that I was interested in was neo materialism and feminism. The artist related to this is Ana Mendieta. Much of Mendieta’s work could strongly represent feminism. In here early performance art, the work was violence against the female body, but later, Mendieta focused on the connection between a physical and the land. As Mendieta said: “My art is grounded on the belief in one universal energy which runs through everything; from insect to man, from mam to specter, from specter to plant, from plant to galaxy”. 

          After Mendieta’s lecture, I have a new understanding about materialism, and I realize that many objects can represent many feelings and can represent many aspect in the nature. Before this lecture, I only know that a good painting is beautiful and good skilled, but now I know that the most important meaning in the painting is the representation the work can represent