Week 4 - Medicine, Technology, and Art

           The topic of this week’s material is medicine, technology, and art. In today’s world, medicine is seen primarily as a practical, scientific-driven field used to heal, treat, and prevent disease. Upon first thought, art is seldom matched with medicine. However, Virgil Wong elegantly recalls his mother advising him that, “Medicine helps us live longer lives, but art is about why we live.” When art is combined with medicine, there is a larger focus on the individual experience, and less on data, facts, and diagnostics.

"Medicine helps us live longer lives, but art is about why we live." 

            For example, Silvia Casini takes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a powerful diagnostic technology that gives different information about structures in the body, and describes the technology in terms of the experience. Casini reflects that while in the MRI machine, she can witness her thoughts without the distraction of the outside world for ten minutes. The MRI, according to Casini, is capable of enacting a process of identity-construction and mirroring.

MRI machine. Link to picture.

            Another example of art adding a component of individual experience to medicine is Diane Gromala’s solution to chronic pain. Gromala speaks about having tried an infinite amount of medical solutions to fight her chronic pain that ultimately didn’t work. Instead, she combines computer science, media art, and design to create an immersive virtual reality to fight her condition. Her solution combines technology and art to create an experience-based solution to fight chronic pain.            

The various solution Gromala tried to handle her chronic pain. TedX Talk can be seen here.

            Virgil uses art to explain the mass amount of data that patients obtain from the doctor’s office to make diagnosis more comprehendible. Art is important to help patients understand the complicated, technical medical diagnoses and jargon so that the patients can have a greater understanding of their health.

Sources

Casini, Silvia. "Magnetic Resonance Imaging as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts."

Gromala, Diane. TEDxAmericanRiviera - Diane Gromala - Curative Powers of Wet, Raw Beauty. 2011. Video. TED TalksWeb. 27 Oct 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRdarMz--Pw>.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging. 2004. Photograph. Greene Medical ImagingWeb. 27 Oct 2013. <http://www.greenemedicalimaging.com/services/mri.html>.

Virgil , Wong. Virgil Wong and the Medical Avatar. 2011. Video. TED TalksWeb. 27 Oct 2013. <http://virgilwong.com/virgils-ted-talk-the-medical-avatar/>.