Week 4: Medtech+Art


The modern biomedical technology has evolved tremendously since the World War II, and has surely taken on novel forms. The course materials taught me the history of the overlaps of art and med-tech. While the German anatomist Von Hagen initially aimed to display a museum of the human body as an art form, the ever-changing technology has collided with the people’s artistic pursuits to spawn new services and products such as plastic surgery and prosthetics. The carnal art embodies the most intrinsic human pursue for beauty and self-expression and attested the development of biomedical studies.

 
Picture of Von Hagen's Body World
Growing up in Shanghai, China, I have slowly grown accustomed to the word plastic surgery. The culture initially became prevalent in South Korea, and was then spread to mainland China through media. Aside from the changing dynamic of the public’s perception towards such tradition, I noticed that the changing perception of beauty, i.e. the most desired facial features, is highly correlated with technological advancement in plastic surgery.



To elaborate, I will compare two pictures of the most popular movie stars respectively from the 80’s and today. The first actress is praised for her natural “eastern” look, while the second is considered the standard modern-day beauty due to her narrow and tall nose, double eye-lids and thick lips. The second celebrity does not resemble the majority of Chinese people at birth, but has become the model that surgeons aim for nowadays with their latest Nano, painless, quick-recovery, and longlasting surgery technologies. While the first movie actor relied on makeup and genetics to look naturally appealing, the latter, who underwent a series of facial modifications has inspired the millions of Chinese youths to use Botox, face-lifts, nose jobs, and lipid-suction to achieve the new beauty. Thus, the paradigm shift is in part related to the advancement in the biomedical field, and reflects the different standards of art that people set based on technology and science.

Works Cited

AFP-JIJI. “Going under the Knife: China's Plastic Surgery Stampede.” The Japan Times, www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/09/26/asia-pacific/social-issues-asia-pacific/going-knife-chinas-plastic-surgery-stampede/#.WuakutPwa9Y.
Donald E. Ingber. “The Architecture of Life.” Scientific American: Feature Article: The Architecture of Life: January 1998, time.arts.ucla.edu/Talks/Barcelona/Arch_Life.htm.
He, Sophie. “5 Beauty Trends That Are Causing Tons of People to Get Plastic Surgery.” ATTN: ATTN: 24 May 2016, www.attn.com/stories/8377/how-beauty-ideals-change-with-plastic-surgery-trends.
Quora. “Scientific Advances Are Making Plastic Surgery Safer And More Efficient Than Ever.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 14 July 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/07/13/scientific-advances-are-making-plastic-surgery-safer-and-more-efficient-than-ever/#cd008bd7baa2.
Victoria Vesna. “Medicine pt1.” YouTube, YouTube, 21 Apr. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=373&v=Ep0M2bOM9Tk.

Comments

  1. Aman KaurApril 30, 2018 at 11:01 PM

    I wholeheartedly agree with your point about how there is a new trend where plastic surgery defines and shapes the standards of beauty worldwide. I think Orlan's performance surgeries, although rather disturbing, also bring attention to this issue. The evolution of medical technologies has not only improved the quality of life dramatically, it's also enabled our society to act upon idealizations of beauty. Thanks to prevalence of plastic surgery we've gone from slowly accepting makeup as mainstream to embracing unnatural standards of beauty. In the pre-plastic surgery world, the painters/artists created beautiful pieces of work using paint and a canvas. Now, we live in a world where plastic surgeons are the artists and humans are their canvas.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yuhan WangMay 1, 2018 at 3:27 AM

    Interesting! As plastic surgeries become more and more general, people start to take those surgeries more often with opener attitude on them. Plastic surgery is definitely the mixture of art and medtech. In the developments of plastic surgeries, art plays an important role of conducting sense of beauty into medical operations.

    ReplyDelete
  3. brontehalliganMay 1, 2018 at 8:54 PM

    I completely agree with your comments about plastic surgery. It plays such an important role in today society and without the advances of medical technology and art it we would not be able to complete these processes.

    ReplyDelete

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