Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine: Scientific Looking, Looking at Science

Visual Culture is a term that has come to denote a wide range of forms, such as art, popular film, and visual data from sciences, law and medicine. Science and looking at science doesn’t occur in an environment isolated from cultural shaping and meaning. It is necessary to view scientific images while taking into account their social contexts and the advertising, art, law, and popular culture of the time period. In other words, “science and culture are always mutually engaged.”

Photography, originating in the early 19th century, became crucial in the fields of science and medicine as imaging methods became more complex and widespread and more incorporated into scientific and medical practices. Even though visual pictures and photographs are usually seen as being objective images, cameras are banned as means of documentation during the proceedings in courts in the U.S..

In medicine and science, there has been an obsession with “seeing the unseen.” People want to be able to see things that are viewed as secret or hidden. It’s human nature to be curious. Therefore, medical imaging techniques fuel human curiosity and inquisitiveness.

Artists have been preoccupied with the topic and representation of the human body for centuries. This was especially true during the Renaissance, when art and science combined on a regular basis. Leonardo da Vinci is famously known for his artistic representations of the anatomy of the human body. He was known to have performed more than 30 dissections during his life, and one of his most famous images, Vitruvian Man, is an anatomical representation of the human body.

An interesting topic in the chapter, anatomy theaters were popular from the 16th century onward. The anatomy theater of Leiden in the Netherlands (built in 1596) was a prominent site for public dissections. It seems like a very strange thing to us; however, the basic idea is present in our culture today—television shows such as Nip/Tuck and medical shows such as House and ER are immensely popular and regularly feature scenes of surgery and dissection.

Currently, the Body Worlds exhibits are popular and are directed by Gunther von Hagens. This exhibit has been discussed on the news, featured on magazine covers, and exhibited in cities around the U.S. and the world for years, followed by much interest and fascination. The bodies in this exhibit undergo a process called “plastination” and are posed and put on display with the layers of flesh pulled back to reveal organs, nerves, blood vessels, and muscle tissue. There have been some obvious controversies surrounding this exhibit, notably the gender discrepancies between the poses of male and female figures and the transgression of the boundary lines between real and fake, human and posthuman, organic and synthetic, and authentic and copy. This exhibit bridges art, science, and entertainment in a somewhat disturbing way.

The camera created the tendency for people to use photography as an objective recording device used to document and classify residents of various institutions—hospitals, asylums, etc. This led to the classification of medicine and the tendency to document and typify humanity. The practice of phrenology uses the drawing and photographs of bodies to catalogue and classify them, as well as to set a standard of “normal.” Phrenology was especially practiced on skulls and was thought to show a visual link between skull shape and temperament, moral capacity, health, and intelligence. Also, photographic categorization was used to establish criminality as a trait which could be linked to physical characteristics like a “low forehead” or “beady” eyes. This is evidenced today when people say things like “he just had a strange look about him” or “he looks like the kind of person would would do—“ of criminals and people in mug shots. In fact, Alphonse Bertillon’s photographs of his subjects’ profiles evolved into the modern day mug shot.

The Human Genome Project is another example of our obsession and desire to have visual “mappings” of the body, even on microscopic and molecular levels. Having a digital map of the genome would produce something easily decipherable, understandable, and containable—thus demystifying the human body in a way that we find somewhat comforting and satisfying.

The idea of a cyborg is another example of how humanity is seen as becoming meshed with technology and machinery. A cybord is something that is part technology and part organism, such as a bionic human. This is also a cultural phenomenon, captured by Hollywood in such films as the Terminator and such TV shows as Battlestar Gallactica.


Once again, science is not created in a vacuum or a world deprived of culture; rather, it is very much shaped by the culture in which it develops. Scientific images also contain cultural meanings that “govern not only how they are produced and for what purpose but also how they are interpreted and gain cultural value.”

Chapter Eight

Chapter 8: Postmodernism, Indie Media, and Popular Culture

Postmodernism is marked by an era of simulation, where a simulation of real is sometimes seen as more real than reality. The idea of an amusement park known as World Park is a very strange idea to me. I find it strange how the Chinese government tries to pacify their citizens’ desire to travel outside of the country by creating miniature replicas of landmarks in the park. However, a similar thing is seen in Disney World’s Epcot, where many different countries are recreated in miniature. Even though this sort of thing is seen in the United States, I feel like its goal is different—Americans (or whoever else) visiting Epcot are probably doing so because it would be impossible to visit so many countries at once from an economic or free time perspective. However, World Park seems like a way to pacify the curiosity of citizens who are unable to travel outside of the country for more political reasons and restrictions.

Also within postmodernism is the idea that everything has been done before, which tends to jade people who become obsessed with remakes, remixes, and the pastiche. Also, there is the tendency to regard human bodies as malleable and changeable to an intense degree of different practices which alter the look of the human body (from body art to surgery to exercise).

Some argue that postmodernism arose from a desire (beginning after 1968 and taking hold in the 1980s) to understand the changing concepts of humanity and as an analysis of globalization and its effects. However, postmodernism can also be seen as a natural progression from the ideas of late modernism. It’s almost impossible to draw a distinctive line between late modernism and postmodernism.

Postmodernism is characterized heavily by the idea that there is no singular truth, but rather there exist many truths that are culturally and historically constructed. It is seen collectively as a mindset that challenges master narratives (i.e. reigning and major politics, science, religion).

Children’s movies today contain so much sarcasm and irony (along with parody and satire) that appeals to adults while at the same time usually going unnoticed by children. However, even though the children may not notice it at the time, they are being raised on these ideas of irony and parody, and will grow up already more aware of its existence than they would have otherwise been if animated films were not geared towards both adults and children. An example of this is the scene in Shrek which pokes fun at the slow-motion, spinning camera angle fight scenes of The Matrix. A child watching Shrek and having not seen The Matrix will not understand the reference, but will still find the scene as funny; whereas, an adult will understand that sarcasm within the reference and find it funny on a deeper level than a child. If the child reviews Shrek as an adult after having seen The Matrix, they will then understand the reference and appreciate it in a new way. I have had many of these experiences when reviewing movies from my childhood. Disney movies are filled with these kinds of instances, and I catch myself trying to remember why I thought parts of movies were funny when I was little because I know I didn’t catch all of the references.

For instance, the movie Aladdin contains an extreme amount of cultural references that are lost on the children who watch the movie (but the children still find the scenes funny for other reasons) but are appreciated by adults. This scene with the genie impersonating Robert De Niro is a good example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFfG8C9Ap9w&feature=related

The section on Radiohead and their album in Rainbows was interesting to see in the book. I personally participated in their available digital download of the album in 2007 (not even dreaming that it would be mentioned in any sort of textbook). It was an interesting move and obviously hasn’t hurt the band in any way—I later went to a concert of theirs last May, and it was packed, so any money they could have potentially lost is certainly made up in increased ticket sales by new fans who were introduced to the band by the digital download.

Helvetica

I found the documentary Helvetica to be extremely interesting. To pay tribute to the typeface, in this post I will be using Arial instead of my usual Georgia. I am fascinated with the idea of different typefaces and fonts and typesetting and have been for years. There is still a large part of me that desperately wants to go into graphic design, although it is unlikely I will do so. However, watching this documentary rekindled the interest I have in graphic design. I think it's incredibly interesting to think about how a typesetting can influence the way that people interpret a message, symbol, brand name, etc. I also think it's interesting to see how people design a typesetting that is not only functional and readable, but also asthetically pleasing and able to convey a message just in the way the letters are shaped and structured as well as what the letters spell out. The whole world of graphic design and especially typesetting is an extremely subtle art, and I suppose that's part of what appeals to me about it. In a completely nerdy way, this documentary would definitely have been something that I would have watched on my own had I come across it outside of class. I was delighted that we were able to watch something like this as part of this class; I thought it was one of the most interesting things we've looked at so far.