Group 1 Mid-Term Presentation: Summary Post

Kat took a look at three artists that use body parts, either their own or others', in order to Kat took a look at three artists that use body parts, either their own or others', in order to create art pieces. There are quite a few ethical questions to raise: Is it selfish of Mark Quinn to use his own blood this way instead of donating it? Does the message that Andrew Krasnow is trying to send outweigh the importance of the skin samples he takes from medical supplies? Do we even "get" this message when looking at his pieces (as opposed to Francois Robert)? Why would someone take issue with Linda Jones' pieces? Do you find them disturbing? Why/why not? Overall, my project focuses on these questions and the aesthetic appeal of human flesh/blood/bones/medical supplies. Do we find these pieces beautiful?

Logan’s work consists of an investigation of the Alder Hey organ scandal, in which Dutch pathologist Dick van Velzen ordered for the illegal seizure and retention of organs from dead infants and children. This issue brings up the ethics and morality of what to do with cadavers, and what happens when physicians place greater value on the constituents of a human as opposed to their lives.

Emily wrote about the manipulation of a cadaver for theatrical, entertainment, and anatomy purposes. The experiment is called Project 12:31. Joseph Jernigan, who was sentenced to murder due to him killing a 75 year old man during a robbery, agreed to donate his body to scientific and medical research. His cadaver was donated to the Visible Human Project, where they cross sectioned it into 1,871 single millimeter slices. Photographer Frank Schott then took multiple pictures of the pieces. The purpose of this was to “facilitate anatomy visualization applications,” giving better more 3D insights of the human anatomy, but it raised ethical concerns to some groups, with main ones saying the medical profession should have nothing to do with executions, and it was scrutinizing the individual. Art director Croix Gagnon worked with him and they ran the slices through an animation illuminating the internal images. They created a process where they played the video of the cross sectioned body on a laptop at night and recorded the video using night photography, manipulating laptop animation and leveraging abnormally long exposures. The end result was “long exposure light paintings of the cadaver” which look like ghostly figures haunting photos.  There are a series of photographs in Project 12:31, with the cadaver appearing in different positions and locations.

Meredith’s work consists of an investigation and description of Body Worlds, which is an exhibition of dead bodies with the primary goal of health education.  Exhibits are deceased human, and even animal, bodies that are medically altered to show what’s under the skin in order to better understand human anatomy and physiology.

Evan’s basic outline consists of a short history of the discovery of anatomy through dissection, morality and ethicality through the years as relating to larger religions, laws and other codes put in place by society;
why people deal with death the way they do; when and why is it ethical and legal in our society to dissect a dead body and the ethicality of a person’s after death wishes and the movement of their body.

For further reading…

Kat’s Subject: http://weburbanist.com/2010/08/23/body-art-creations-made-of-human-flesh-blood-bones/

Logan’s Subject: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1136723.stm

Emily’s Subject: http://www.project1231.com/ and http://www.designboom.com/art/1231-the-visible-human-project-as-a-photographic-series/

Meredith’s Subject: http://www.bodyworlds.com/en.html