Week 4: Medicine, Technology and Art

With the development of science and technology, medication and medicines have been improved to a very advanced level. We have already learned some of the knowledge of biology like human body. However, we normally do not have so much visual understandings of it. Drew Berry is one of the world's foremost animators working in biomedical visualization. He has visually employed the animation into the behaviors, dynamics and properties of human body.  He combines scientific and digital technology to create a different but amazing micro-image beneath our skin. By magnification of 100 million times shown in the anime, we can directly learn what our bodies beneath skin is like and how our bodies function everyday. This perfect combination of all medicine, technology and art offers us a great opportunity to learn about our bodies and become familiar to them.

Drew Berry-Body Code, 2003

In the light of technology, nowadays medications and art can be well integrated to serve as certain functions such as education. I went to the "Cardiac Dance" event held by Dr. Buckberg. In the "Cardiac Dance", choreography combined with light, music and media shows the spiral movement of our hearts. The dance was the artistic expression of Dr. Busckberg's new idea of heart surgery. This event is a very impressive lesson for me to know deeper about how heart moves and functions.

The Cardiac Dance, The Spirals of Life

Forrest Bess widely employed his knowledge of medicines into his work in his later life. He used symbols that he invented into his paintings to convey his understandings of sex and gender. His idea that males and females are united is so bold that he even operated on himself as an experiment. His knowledge of biology provided him a special perspective in his art creations. Painting is not just a form of artistic exhibition, but also an artist's expression of his or her particular understandings of science such as medicine.

Forrest Bess

Forrest Bess -The Noble Carbunkle 

Resources:

1. Forrest Bess. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2013.

2. "UC HealthNews : Findings: College of Medicine Alumnus Develops 'Artistic' Way to Teach About Heart Function." UC HealthNews. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2013.

3."drew berry." Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square, Melbourne - ACMI Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2013.

4. "The Cardiac Dance | The Spirals of Life on Vimeo." Vimeo. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2013.

5. "Forrest Bess | About Forrest Bess." Forrest Bess. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2013.