Week 4: Medicine + Technology + Art


As someone who has always wanted to study medicine and has always found a profound fascination with the human body, I found this chapter to be extremely interesting and very compelling. When I was 16 I was in the hospital a lot due to a cancer diagnosis, and I spent a lot of time under an MRI, and CT Scans. When watching the lectures this week and the professor spoke about how the advancement of science and technology shapes our perceptions of our bodies and ourselves. I can recount a time when I first saw an image of my brain and it honestly did change the way I saw myself from that point forward.
Professor Vesna spoke on how medical technologies have been evolving and advancing for 100s of years, and how the way we have conducted medical practices like surgeries really are shaped by the way we perceive the human body. When artists interpret what the body is supposed to be or how its supposed to work that affects our medical practices, and vice versa. According to Brian Kelly from the Wall Street Journal, the advancement of science and technology together not only affects art but it affects societies psyche as well. We are less empathetic and less connected to the human body as we once were before. 



Sources:
Vesna, Victoria. "Medicine Part 1". UCLA. 21, April 2012. 
Vesna. Victoria. "Medicine Part 2". UCLA. 21, April 2012. 
Vesna, Victoria. "Medicine Part 3". UCLA. 21, April 2012. 
Kelly, Brian. "New Order: Art and Technology in the Twenty-first Century". The Wall Street Journal. April 24, 2019. 



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