Week 4: Medtech + Art

This week’s intersection of art, medicine, and technology challenged how I think about the human body, not just as a biological body, but as a site of expression and transformation. In the lecture, Professor Vesna discussed Raymond Vahan Damadian, the pioneer of the MRI machine. What amazed me was the fact that Damadian’s graduate students volunteered to be the first test subjects inside the machine. That trust and risk-taking speak to the collaborative spirit behind medical innovation. The article "Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait" helped me see how MRI scans are not just diagnostic images; they are reflections of identity, memory, and mortality. 












“The Full-Body Imaging Movement: A Strategic Upgrade for MRI.” Imaging Technology News, 4 Mar. 2024, https://www.itnonline.com/article/full-body-imaging-movement-strategic-upgrade-mri. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.

While MRI lets us see beneath the surface, plastic surgery transforms that surface. Originally developed to treat soldiers wounded in war, plastic surgery has evolved into something much more complex. As Professor Vesna showed in lecture, artists like Orlan have used plastic surgery as performance art. Orlan famously altered her face to resemble features from classical artworks, modeling her chin after Botticelli's Venus and her forehead after da Vinci's Mona Lisa (Vesna, “Human Body & Medical Technologies Part 3”).














“Orlan.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Apr. 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlan. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.

The reading "The Architecture of Life" tied everything together as Ingber introduces the concept of tensegrity, where biological structures maintain shape through a balance of tension and compression. This helps me better understand how plastic surgeons must balance form and function, symmetry and structure, mimicking sculpting.









Stewart, Jessica. “8 Examples of Tensegrity That Almost Defy Gravity.” My Modern Met, 3 Apr. 2021, https://mymodernmet.com/tensegrity-architecture/. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.

The Hippocratic Oath also played a crucial role in shaping my thoughts. Even in elective or aesthetic procedures, the guiding principle of "doing no harm" remains important. Whether a procedure is to restore or to enhance, the patient’s dignity and well-being should always come first.

Works Cited:

Casini, Silvia. “Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as mirror and portrait: MRI configurations

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

Ingber, Donald E. “The Architecture of Life.” Scientific American, 1998, pp. 48–57. 

Tyson, Peter. “The Hippocratic Oath Today.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 26 Mar. 2001,

www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/hippocratic-oath-today/. 

Vesna, Victoria. Lecture Part 2: Human Body & Medical Technologies. DESMA 9, 23 Apr. 2025,

University of California, Los Angeles. Lecture.

Vesna, Victoria. Lecture Part 3: Human Body & Medical Technologies. DESMA 9, 23 Apr. 2025,

University of California, Los Angeles. Lecture.

Media Cited:

“Orlan.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Apr. 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlan. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.

Stewart, Jessica. “8 Examples of Tensegrity That Almost Defy Gravity.” My Modern Met, 3 Apr. 2021, https://mymodernmet.com/tensegrity-architecture/. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.

“The Full-Body Imaging Movement: A Strategic Upgrade for MRI.” Imaging Technology News, 4 Mar. 2024, https://www.itnonline.com/article/full-body-imaging-movement-strategic-upgrade-mri. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.

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