Chapter 9 Synopsis

Chapter 9: Scientific Looking, Looking at Science

Interpretations of images are not based on one event; they are normally based on many different factors and conditions. Any form of images, such as art, TV, films, advertising, and visual data are all considered to be visual culture. All of these images are said to be separate from culture. Images that are scientific are normally seen to be true and objective because of the background behind the information. For example, when you see statistics about how popular a certain brand is, you may believe this statistics over just an advertisement that is broadcasted about the brand. This chapter focuses on how scientific images are in fact dependent on the culture just as art, TV, and film.
The first example used is the development of the x-ray. The first x-ray taken only looked like a silhouette of a hand. Because of developments in film and photography the x-ray is now what it is today. Photography has played a huge role in the development of scientific, medical, and legal advances. This shows that scientific information depends on the culture. Without the cultural developments that happen every year, we would not have the scientific and medical technology that we have available to us today. “Science and culture are mutually engaged” (350).
Many artists have studied the human body and developed beautiful artwork that explains every muscle of the human body. This also allowed scientific and medical advances to happen. DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man is a good example of this. This image is a human figure whose proportions are in reference to geometry. This body image of this man portrays a real ideal human body image. This image is now used in medicine and health practices because it shows the relationship between the human body and the laws of mathematics and the structure of nature (351).
In the late nineteenth century, many artists were very interested in the human body: both the outside and inside. Back in these days, surgery was not done in a sterile environment, but it was done in a theatre. Many people would stand around and watch a surgery take place. This was fascinating to many artists at the time, who wanted to better understand the human body. The Visible Human Project also helped to understand the human body to the full extent. This exhibit used two frozen dead bodies, one male and one female, and each body was sliced into thin slices. The slices were then each photographed, which in turn allowed them to create a virtual body. The images were then released to the public. This exhibit is also an example of the relationship between art and science. These acts of scientific advancements were later able to be used as art all around the world, while still allowing for research of the human body. The development of the x-ray, CT scan, and MRI were all big advances in the practice of medicine. The x-ray allowed for researchers to look inside a person’s body to either diagnose a problem or to better understand the body. Ultrasounds are another example of how technological advances in culture allow for a better understanding of both medicine and science.
Photographs and art also help greatly with the law and medical evidence. The advancements in mechanical and electronic image producing systems, including photography, motion picture, film, television, computer graphics, and digital photography, help in the process of evidence. Positivism is a “philosophical belief that the true and valid knowledge about the world is knowledge derived from objective scientific method” (355). Positivism helps in the fields of law, medicine, journalism, and social sciences in cases in which these scholars need to measure the reality without having any kind of bias in the situation. By using this philosophy they are able to mechanically observe, measure, and study the real world in a way in which they could redo and recheck their work to make sure the evidence is precisely accurate. A camera is considered to be and “objective device for capturing reality” (355). Because of this, photography became a powerful medium for the practices of science and medicine. The use of the camera could be used by managers, in mental hospitals, in crime scenes, and in identification of people.
It has been said for many centuries that the “truth lies beneath the surface” (369). It is also said by other critics that when looking inside someone you are able to see their “true identity” (370). By introducing the new photography machines that allow you to look inside someone has allowed these statements to be true. These images taken of the human body by these new machines have been seen as the “primary avenue to truth” (370). We now can understand the way the body works and who each part of the body, both inside and out, react and work with each other. These images taken help medical professionals and scientists understand and experience how their bodies work and how other people’s bodies work. The brain scans are said to have the most power culturally. This is because the brain is the most complex part of the human body, and with these brain scans we are able to see how this structure works.
Science and medicine has also advanced so far as to be able to make a blue print of the human body by figuring out the DNA that each person is consisted of. These blue prints show all the human genomes. With this knowledge, in the 1980s an instrument was invented that used computer software to make an image of what a person would age to in a few years. This helped with finding people who were on the most wanted list and criminals. They were able to age the photos of these people in order to make them look as if they were the age that they were at that point in time.
In conclusion, in order for there to be scientific and medical advances, there also needs to be cultural advances and vice versa. Because of this relationship we can see that science is not only based upon facts, but is based upon a variety of other things based on the culture around it.