Week 4: Medicine + Technology + Art

This week’s lecture and materials made we realize that art is all around us and has always been.  Technology has made the biggest change when it comes to medicine and this changes happened centuries ago.  Technology is most useful and well known now because people now understand it’s significant. Anatomy and dissection has existed since the beginning of times but is now its has evolved into a more safer and secure process. As the world change so does the ways of things. Anatomy is more advanced now due to use of technology.  I thought surgeries didn’t exist till the twentieth century but this week’s materials made realize it had been happening for more than three thousand years ago.

Figure 1: This is a picture of the processes of mummification in ancient Egypt. 

In ancient Egypt when the king or an important figure died mummification process was done to preserve their bodies in the tombs. This process included dissection whereby a 10cm incision was made in the side of the corpse using an obsidian knife to remove the organs then a solution of natron salt was put inside to help preserve the body from decaying. This shows how anatomy and the study of the human body existed along ago. Even though the research of the human body has been going on for centuries, the invention of the technology made things easier and less complicated to the ordinary human.

Figure 2: This a Lab Test of Raymond Damadian readies assistant Larry Minkoff for a body scan in his 1977 MRI prototype. ( Raymond Damadian is the inventor of the MRI)

During the 1800s doctors and biomedical scientists developed instruments to examine and understand the body. Devices such as the thermometer, microscope and kymograph revealed how healthy and diseased bodies worked.  Some of the very important instruments are the x-ray and MRI scanners, which help us, examine what is wrong with certain parts of our human body that the human eyes cannot explain by just looking at it.  The development of these instruments has made very huge impact in our daily lives. Just last week I went and got an x-ray for my thumb and when I got the results back, it said my thumb was fine. My trainer told me to go and get an  MRI and when I got the result back, it’s said I had torn some ligaments in my thumb. This shows how these technologies play a very important and useful role in our daily lives.  

Figure 3: Prescription Medicines 

Art is the base of all these great inventions, which has been helpful to our daily lives.  All these medicines that are prescribed to us by doctors are very useful due to the use of these new instruments that helps determine how many doses are safe for us to take to help us and thermometers that help that to tell us how if how temperature is too high or low.  The insulin pump for type one diabetes is a great example of how technology + art has develop something very in import to help save human lives. it has been programed to pump sugar into your body automatically when the body is need of it. This show has far technology has evolved. 

Figure 4: Insuline Pump 

With the combination of art and technology this world is about to discover so many great technologies that will help us do the most unthinkable things and helped create medicines to help cure many disease that centuries ago seemed impossible to cure.

Citation

"Researcher Battles Insulin Pump Maker over Security Flaw - CNET." CNET. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.


"Mummies and Mummification - History in an Hour." History in an Hour. N.p., 04 Jan. 2011. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.


"Science Museum. Brought to Life: Exploring the History of Medicine." Technology and Medicine. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.


Hendricks, Drew. "How Technology Is Changing the Medical and Health Care Field." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.

"Technology, Support Groups Help Man Manage Diabetes for Decades."RTV6. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.

Week 3: Art + Robotics

If I was asked before going through this weeks materials about whether art and robotics had any relationship what so ever I would have said “No” because I didn’t think they did. After going through the week 3 lecture and the readings and I am now fully aware of the important of how art and robotics influence each other.  Even though we might think that robotics art is this modern invention but the truth is that robotic art existed in ancient China as far back as the Han Dynasty (c. third century BC), with the development of a mechanical orchestra, and other devices such as mechanical toys. 

Figure 1: Jade suit Tomb of Han prince Liu Sheng Before 113 BCE Mancheng, China

This is suit sewn together with gold thread. it was believed that the use of such precious materials such as gold thread, bronze, and jade was an Icon of protection but what is most interesting to me about this suit is that it was sown together like some of the robots in this modern days. this to me shows how robotics have existed long before and how it has evolved into something bigger like machines that able to do jobs that that centuries ago could only be done by humans.

Figure 2: Robots used by Automakers

Robotics in this modern time can is being used in both positive and negative ways. Robotics art is part of our daily lives now because its everywhere. They protect us from harm and also are the main tools that helps build most of our important daily needs like cars, planes, trains computers etc. Robotics on the other hand are used to manufacture weapons that are harmful to the human race like bombs and weapons pf mass distraction. In Walter Benjamin"s "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1936) he said "One of the foremost tasks of art has always been the creation of a demand which could be fully satisfied only later." to me the satisfied part of creation of demand is how art and robotics have combined to create things that are very important to our day to day style of living.

Figure 3: A picture of a robot from the movie "I, Robot"

Now robotic engineers are designing the next generation of robots to look, feel and act more human and some even believe that in many year to come robots are going to take over the world due to the how fast technology is growing. Like in the movie “I Robot” when bad robots rebel against the human race and try to wip as out.  This shows that even for how technology has helped us till this day, the fear of the use of it talking over the world and wiping away old culture is something to keep in mind. Robotics is very influential in this modern day but combined with  Art, the world is bound to make the unthinkable things come to reality like Walter Benjamin once said "It is only for the sake of those without hope that hope is given to us" when we believe that something is can be done is when it gets done and with robots and art together, there is a power to make anything happen.

Citation 

"Walter Benjamin Quote." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.

“APPLETON MUSEUM OPENS 'EDGE TO EDGE: VINTAGE PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHY IN FLORIDA' AND 'ART OF THE ROBOT' IN MID-JUNE." Newsroom.N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.

"I, Robot (film)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.

"Robotic Art." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.

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"Walter Benjamin Quote." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.