Week 4

Nowadays, medical technologies enable us to analyze our body structures. For example, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses strong magnetic fields and radio waves to demonstrate "high-quality images of organs, structures, and tissues..., unsurpassed in showing anatomical detail" (Casini 2011). MRI produced those images from the Visible Human Project, letting both scientists and artists envision the unknown and further illustrate the complex brain. Its impacts on art are vast such as how it contributed to expanding the definition of self-portraits. However, while this technology offers more accurate representations of our bodies, artists could be more innovative. For instance, Virgil Wong's Symptom Data Portraits took these medical scans to perceive patients' pain.

 

Additionally, plastic surgery is common these days. There is more social acceptance because of the rise of social media. This procedure is more affordable than it used to be and it has been seen to 'improve self-esteem/confidence' (Booth).

 

Finally, new technological im
provements in plastic surgery have made these procedures more reliable (American Society of Plastic Surgeons). For instance, researchers have developed an augmented reality system for doctors to generate 3D simulations of their desired results for a facial reconstruction procedure (Kim et al.), exemplifying how technology such as virtual reality and augmented reality can help lower any potential risks in such invasive procedures, whether for cosmetic purposes or not.

Work Cited

American Society of Plastic Surgeons. "Augmented Reality Technology May Help Guide Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery." American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 3 Aug. 2017, https://www.plasticsurgery.org/news/press-releases/augmented-reality-technology-may-help-guide-plastic-and-reconstructive-surgery#:~:text=A%20plastic%20surgery%20research%20group,Open%C2%AE%2C%20the%20official%20open%2D.

Booth, Stephanie. "Why More People Are Getting Plastic Surgery." Healthline Media, 25 Mar. 2019, https://www.healthline.com/health-news/more-people-getting-plastic-surgery#Why-cosmetic-procedures-are-on-the-upswing.

Casini, Silvia. "Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts." Configurations, vol. 19, no. 1, 2011, pp. 73–99., https://doi.org/10.1353/con.2011.0008.

Kim, Youngjun, et al. "Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality in Plastic Surgery: A Review." Archives of Plastic Surgery, The Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, May 2017, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5447526/.

"The Human Genome Project." Genome.gov, https://www.genome.gov/human-genome-project.