Week 4 Medicine+Art

In this weeks lectures Professor Vensa discusses medicine and technology and explains how anatomy, x-rays, and plastic surgery correlate with art. Professor Vensa explains how "dissecting the human body was important for artist (Lec 1)." This gave artists a better understanding of the internal picture of the body and allowed them to illustrate the inner layers of a human. As technology advanced a german man by the name of Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen discovered x-rays "while experimenting with electrical currents through glass cathode-ray tubes (HowStuffWorks)." This new technology enabled artists to illustrate accurate artwork of a skeleton. Plastic surgery was another topic of medicine that influenced art. Orlan is a woman who "started a series of surgical performances... in which her objective was to embody and envision beauty created by renown painters throughout the history (Lec, 3).


I never looked at anatomy as a connection to art, but after listening to Professor Vensa it makes total sense as to how important anatomy was to artist even from ancient times. When we look at Michelangelo's statue of David that was created between 1501-1504, we don't realize this "14 foot marble statue" was created and inspired from anatomy (academia.org).


What stood out to me most was listening to Professor Vensa talk about plastic surgery as a form of art. She mentions that plastic surgery was created by war. This is completely understandable because of the fact that peoples physical appearances can become extremely damaged or deformed in combat, in which doctors operate on them to reconstruct their physical appearance. But now, living in Los Angeles we walk around and see many women with plastic surgery because they want to look a certain way, or thing they look young and beautiful. We see so many people in LA with plastic surgery, mainly wealthy women, we forget where this medical work of art originated from.


Vesna, Victoria. “Medicine+Technology+Art” Lecture 1.

Vesna, Victoria. “Medicine+Technology+Art” Lecture 2.

Vesna, Victoria. “Medicine+Technology+Art” Lecture 3.

Vesna, Victoria. “Medicine+Technology+Art” Lecture 3.
"Michelangelo's David: Admire World's Greatest Sculpture at Accademia Gallery." Guide to Accademia Gallery. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2017.

Briggs, Josh. "Who Invented the X-ray?" HowStuffWorks Science. HowStuffWorks, 12 Jan. 2011. Web. 01 May 2017.

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 3, 2017 at 10:55 PM

    Hello,
    I think you did a great job in concisely summarizing this week's lecture topic and providing your audience with good examples. Also, the way you incorporate quotes from lecture and from outside sources can be helpful for someone to look up exactly what you are referencing . I also did not realize just how much anatomy is used in art until reading last week's readings and it fascinates me how many things are influenced by it. Additionally, I agree with you that plastic surgery has become even more than just art and as Khloe Kardashian ones said, people in LA get plastic surgery like they fill their cars with gas.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMay 3, 2017 at 11:10 PM

    This really helped me remember last weeks lecture, believed it was a great summary as well. It is also crazy to think and put plastic surgery and art together.

    ReplyDelete

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