The Canvas

<Figure 1>

It never dawned on me how important art was for science until I thought about medicine. Medicine is a very visual discipline. It involves a connection and interaction with the human body that many times needs a visual aid. One of the most helpful visual aids medicine has is art.

Earlier this year, Naomi Slipp, a Boston University, History of Art and Architecture graduate student designed an exhibit that displayed the human body as an intersection of art. Her showcase, Teaching the Body, gave visitors a history of anatomy in America (Thibeau).

<Figure 2>

Slipp worked to gather various art pieces including Cast of the Hand of Harvey Cushing (1992) and Angelico (2012). The pieces Slipp collected for her showcase were not just important pieces of art, they were also integral to the advancement of medicine. As anatomy evolved and as different images of the body were used to represent complex ideas, not directly related to medicine, the human body morphed itself into a canvas. A canvas that is on one side examined by the doctor and on the other used by the artist.

One of the most influential artists this week that put into perspective the true relationship between medicine and art was Orlan. Her Carnal Art (2001) documentary was powerful because her body was her art piece.

<Figure 3>

This week’s material was very interesting yet at times challenging because of the extremes some artists would take in order to convey a message. Orlan’s documentary was especially difficult to watch because of how vulnerable she was at times. Her dedication and her determination to allow doctors to cut into her skin and to alter her body for art was ironic. This was ironic because medicine calls for people to do the very same thing and one could have assumed Orlan was giving her body for science.

The most important idea I took about art and medicine this week is that the boundaries for anatomy and art are blurred and medicine and art are always intertwined.

   

Figures

<Figure 1> Cast of the Hand of Harvey Cushing. 1992. Photograph. n.p. Web. 27 Oct 2013. <https://www.countway.harvard.edu/chm/rarebooks/exhibits/gilt/>.

<Figure 2> Nilsson, Lisa. Angelico. 2012. Painting. The LancetWeb. 27 Oct 2013. <http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673613602664/images?imageId=fx1§ionType=lightBlue&hasDownloadImagesLink=false>.

<Figure 3> Sichov, Vladimir. Orlan. Photograph. www.stanford.edu. Web. 27 Oct 2013. <http://www.stanford.edu/class/history34q/readings/Orlan/Orlan4.jpeg>.

Sources

Liao, Joshua. "The human body at the intersection of art and science." Lancet. 381.9866 (2013): 525. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. <http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)60266-4/fulltext>.

Oriach, Stephan, dir. Orlan, carnal art. 2001. Film. 27 Oct 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no_66MGu0Oo>.

Thibeau, Erin. N.p.. Web. 27 Oct 2013. <http://www.bu.edu/today/2013/teaching-the-body/>.

The Art of Reproduction

<Figure 1>

In 1995, Douglas Davis published a piece on the reproduction of art in the Leonardo journal. Davis stated, “[t]here is no longer a clear conceptual distinction between original and reproduction in virtually any medium based in film, electronics, or telecommunications” (381-386).

In his article, Davis described the advancements in technology that gave artists the tools to reproduce as much as they liked without losing aesthetic value. The artist’s ability to reproduce sometimes only enhanced their abilities, allowing them to create new, dramatically different pieces of art.

<Figure 2>

Almost sixty years before Davis and his defense of digital reproduction, Walter Benjamin published The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936), where he argued that “the technique of reproduction detache[d] the reproduced object from the domain of tradition” (Benjamin). This loss of tradition Benjamin describe[d] as the “aura” of the art. The aura of an art piece, he said, “withers in the age of mechanical reproduction” (Benjamin).  

Although Davis and Benjamin stand on different ends of the reproduction spectrum, I feel that there is a sense of truth in what they both have to say.

Davis is very correct in believing that reproduction can give artists a lot of freedom. As it is, I can take one picture and reproduce it 1000 times, yet have a different picture each time. Take as a small example <Figure 3>. The collage of photos shown all stemmed from the same image, but after reproduction I was able to create a new piece of art with a new meaning. With reproduction, all these combined images mean more than one ever could on its own.

<Figure 3> 

On the other hand, Benjamin is also very right in believing that reproduction cannot only lower an artworks value, but art can also lose its sense of uniqueness. Seeing the same image over and over again isn’t art, it’s propaganda and advertising. The moment that reproduction is used to convey a message that doesn’t need much interpretation the aura is lost.

However, with technological advancements only increasing, it would be foolish to view art as aura-less. Instead, in the words of Davis, the aura of an art piece should be experienced in the “originality of the moment when we see, hear, read, repeat, revise.”

Figures

<Figure 1>Douglas Davis. N.d. Photograph. UC Berkele'ys Center for New MediaWeb. 20 Oct 2013.          <http://atc.berkeley.edu/bio/Douglas_Davis/>.

<Figure 2>Claude, Kipper. The Work Of Art In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction. N.d. Book                Cover.      Amazon.comWeb. 20 Oct 2013.

<Figure 3> Cuevas, Gabriela. My Magic Boots. 2013. Photographic Collage. Blogger.comWeb. 20 Oct        2013.

Sources

Benjamin, Walter . The Work Of Art In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction. Prism Key Press, 2010.        50. print.

Davis, Douglas. "The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction (An Evolving Thesis: 1991-                1995)."Leonardo. 28.5    (1995): 381-386. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.                                                           <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1576221>.

Vesna, Victoria. "Robotics Art." DESMA 9. UC Online. . Lecture.

Related Sites

This site sells real reproductions of famous art pieces. http://www.reproductionart.org/

This site sells  industrial art. http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/industrial/all

Literature...the Third Culture

Mathematics and art have not necessarily collided together, instead they have been formed a third culture in the realm of literature.

The Battle of the Minds

(Fig. 1 A picture of the Dallol craters located in northern Ethiopia.

The iron stains, algae, mud and salt produce the colorful

landscape seen above.)

As a geology major working on a fiction novel, C.P. Snow’s The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution resonates loudly in my mind. I am always frustrated when students in the science departments claim that they are not creative. They are always so willing to mold themselves into the stereotypes they grew up believing. They always find a way to limit themselves. Yet, at the same time, how can I blame them when the very educators that are supposed to help these students reach their true potential only help limit them.