Medicine, Technology and Art

Maybe regularly seeing Stephen Hawkins in his wheelchair when we lived in Cambridge as a young child got me used to the idea of machines supporting humans to be more effective. Since then I have become a gymnast and it is this that has brought me into continuous touch with medical technology, in particular scanning machines of all kinds – x-rays, CT scans, MRIs – as doctors have checked for injuries of all kinds.  I love the impossibility of what I do as a gymnast; when I was a child I called it ‘flying through the air’. I have to be curious about what is happening beneath my skin. To do the impossible I must train my body to achieve the strength, precision and reliability of a machine, but I do so to produce a performance that is beautiful and seemingly without effort.  I am sure that it is this daily familiarity with the mechanics of my body that is the ground of my ambition to be an orthopedic surgeon. I watch operation videos all the time. Orthopedics is already completely caught up with technology. The bread and butter work is joint replacement – making bodies last 

 longer through the magic of titanium replacement joints in hips and knees. Robots are already helping in this work for, unlike gymnasts, they only need to be trained once to work with a precision that even the very best surgeon finds hard to achieve. By the time I have finished my training who knows what orthopedics may have become. The artist can anticipates this. Far beyond knee and hip joints there are possibilities of a much more thorough blending of metal and skin. 



Or there is the Luxerau image, which offers the prospects of electronic inter-changeable body parts like the dressing toys I used to play with. 



Digital image. Cyborgs. N.p., n.d. Web. 2017.http://www.sbs.com.au/news/sites/sbs.com.au.news/files/insight_cyborgs_web_text_1280x720.jpg

Branco, Jorge. "Robot Helped This Surgeon with His Latest Hip Replacement." Brisbane Times. Brisbane Times, 18 Apr. 2016. Web. 29 Apr. 2017.http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/australianfirst-robotassisted-hip-replacement-performed-in-brisbane-20160419-go9vph.html

MyWMCstory. "Orthopaedic Robotic Technology at Williamson Medical Center." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Apr. 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2017.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHXp5lEqAWA

WackyUniverse. "10 Unbelievable Recent Medical Discoveries." YouTube. YouTube, 10 July 2016. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGtEZRUwdmY

Luxerau, Christopher. "Arts." Christophe Luxereau : Arts / Pièces Détachées. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2017.http://www.luxereau.com/arts/spareparts1.html




Comments

  1. prashantspartaMay 1, 2017 at 6:41 PM

    I like how you start off with Stephen Hawking and how seeing him made you realize the role machines have in helping humans. It was interesting how you tied your own experiences like gymnastics through the blog and it made it more fun to read. I do agree that you train a lot for something that looks so graceful and elegant. It was also interesting how an artist can figure out what may happen in the future and start making designs for them. Good job!

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