Art, Science + Technology
DMA9 Fall 2007, Section BArchive for November 7, 2007
Week 6: Bodies and Medical Procedures
Has plastic surgery gone too far?
The practical purpose of plastic surgery is to reform the structure of people’s bodies who have a deformity. For example, someone who was burned in a tragic accident and was left with scars would be eligible for surgery. Or as a less severe example, a person who was once fat and then lost a lot of weight could have excessively sagging skin that could be removed through plastic surgery. Whatever the case, the point is that people desire to look as “normal” as possible. But this brings up the debatable question: What is “normal”? Looking normal can be defined as having all appendages, or in a more optimistic view, just being human, in the way we came to this Earth. However, it seems that society has, in recent years, confused the idea of looking normal with looking “beautiful”. In the modern world, being beautiful has restrictions – a woman has to be skinny, tall, and tanned. These nonsensical beliefs have led people to “fix” parts of themselves that have no deformity. Combined with the media, celebrities such as Michael Jackson have truly promoted this view of creating artificial beauty through plastic surgery.
A few months ago, I watched an episode of Dr. Phil in which a middle-aged woman spoke of her experience with plastic surgery and her motives. This woman had spent thousands of dollars on more than 10 operations on her body, including various face lifts. She was even considering selling her Mercedes to have more operations. It was evident that the woman had no physical abnormalities. Yet she was so consumed with achieving the goal of “beauty”, she didn’t realize how illogical and ridiculous her story was. After essentially emptying her husband’s wallet, all the woman had achieved was a fake appearance; in the works of our professor, instead of looking young, she looked like “an old person trying to look young.”
So to answer my question, yes, I believe plastic surgery has gone too far.
Links:
Face Value: Plastic Surgery and Transformation Art
~ Now plastic surgeons say that can give patients a whole new face
Sharon Osbourne Reveals Plastic Surgeries on Dr. Phil
~ Although I have presented my beliefs, it’s difficult to have a strong viewpoint on this issue because I am still influenced by the media. I thought it was interesting to watch people’s reactions in this video (the old lady in the audience seems to be against her surgeries, showing how this is a craze only in the new generations).
The 15 Worst Celebrity Plastic Surgery Disasters You Will Ever See
~ It doesn’t always work the way you want it to
Week 6: Human Body
In today(Monday)’s lecture, we focused on human body, including scientific advances and plastic surgery.
In science, human body has always been a fascinating topic to explore. Starting from thousands of years ago, past scientists have tried to dissect human bodies to learn the components within. Leonardo Da Vinci has performed private studies on human body by dissecting it and documented in his daily notes. In anatomy, plastination allows scientists to preserve body parts of all types of animals including human cadavers. As stated in Wikipedia.org, plastination removes all of the water and fat and any other excess liquid from an organ. Workers can put other liquid inside the body parts to preserve the organs. The result is standing body parts that can be examined by scientists. Since nothing else has been done to the body parts, the organs still contains the original physical and chemical properties. This practice does not limit to the muscles of a body. It can also be done to nerves system, cardiovascular system and digestive system. In elementary science book, the students often see a graph showing the different systems constantly running in our bodies. For example, for digestive system, one may see picture of a person with only month, esophagus, stomach, liver, and intestines. This graph is always two dimension and never three dimensions. Using plastination, one can see all of these systems in three dimensions and in physical form. To further understand the human body, scientists have dissected the human cadaver in to not only 5 major pieces but thousands of pieces. In Visible Human Project, a body is first washed and cleaned. It is then put into a mold to prevent it from moving around. Using a special cutting machine, the scientists can cut the body into thousands of pieces. The computer graphics can recreate this body by digitalizing each section. The end result is a video that contains thousands of cross sections of the body. The project gives a new perspective to how to view the internal organs of a human body.
Any display of the above examples has the purpose to educate the future generation. By providing a new view of human body, one can see more clearly of the amazing parts of our body. As stated above, human body is not only the focus of science but also a focus of art.
From ancient times to today, painters have painted human in his or her nature form. For example, Leonardo da Vinci has included many illustrations of human body in his works. Carl Johan Rehbinder posted many body parts on his websites as example of arts. Art and science can be combined in many works. The topic of human body is no exception. Plastic surgery is a perfect example of how art and science combine.
For years, humans have tried to pursue beauty. People have tried to put on make up, masks, and ear rings. The relatively new invention allow people to change the physical appearance of a human to make him or her more attractive. It is an art because it takes creativity to achieve the desire beauty. It is science because it requires the state of the art technology. A perfect example of plastic surgery can be seen in the movie shown before our DESMA class. In the movie, the mother of the protagonist tried to look “twenty years younger” by using paper clips and plastics. The result is less than appealing but somewhat effective.
