[csaa-forum] Symposium Annoucment: Virtual Anatomies, Aug 30-31 2011, UQ

Fri Jun 17 13:20:32 CST 2011

Virtual Anatomies: The Cultural Impact of New Medical Imaging Technologies

Date: August 30-31, 2011
Venue: Innes Room, University of Queensland
Registration: Free, but essential for catering purposes

Over the last ten years, medical imaging technologies such as MRI and PET have not only come to play an increasingly central role in medical practice and research, but have also transformed the way bodies are seen and represented across a wide range of popular contexts.  Images of human anatomy and biological function circulate with great frequency on television shows as well as in government health campaigns and advertising for commercial products.  The speed with which the images produced by medical imaging technologies have entered into the popular sphere, along with the widespread public acceptance of these images as offering empirical proof about the truth of that body and its condition, is indicative of the profound influence imaging technologies now exert in shaping cultural attitudes towards the body and public expectations about its treatment.

The aim of this symposium is to assess the cultural impact of new medical imaging technologies, taking account of their popular effects while also evaluating the medical, ethical, legal and philosophical issues they raise.  Papers will consider, variously:

*         the development and clinical application of imaging technologies

*         the historical conditions in which they emerged and acquired their current cultural status

*         the institutions and systems of knowledge by which they are supported and the ethical considerations they raise

*         the range of cultural, artistic and commercial purposes to which they are put

The cultural impact medical imaging technologies can be measured, in part, by the public hype surrounding the Visible Human, Digital Human and Human Genome Projects, by the commercialisation of brain imaging technologies in new fields like neuromarketing and neuroeconomics, by the submission of MRI and PET images as legal evidence in court cases, and by the appropriations of these images and technologies in contemporary visual arts.

"Virtual Anatomies: the Cultural Impact of New Medical Imaging Technologies" will bring together scientists, philosophers, artists, bioethicists, medical researchers, historians and cultural theorists to discuss the cultural impact of medical imagining technologies and their ethical, aesthetic and scientific consequences.  In so doing, the symposium is intended to take account of the new intersections art, science and culture produced by these technologies and their influence on changing the significance and understanding of human anatomy at the start of the twenty-first century.

This free event is supported by a University of Queensland Foundation Research Excellence Award.  Members of the public are welcome to attend.

For further information, contact Elizabeth Stephens: e.stephens at uq.edu.au<mailto:e.stephens at uq.edu.au>

Confirmed Keynotes Speakers

Oron Catts, University of Western Australia
Oron Catts is Director and founder of SymbioticA, Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts at the University of Western Australia.  He is an artist, researcher and a curator at the forefront of the emerging field of Biological arts.  He has been a Research Fellow at the Tissue Engineering and Organ Fabrication Laboratory, Harvard Medical School, and founded the Tissue Culture and Art Project in 1996.
Susan Dodds, University of Tasmania
Susan Dodds is Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Tasmania.  She is currently conducting research on three projects funded by the ARC: human vulnerability, ethical issues relating to nanomedicine/ bionics, and democratic policy making on ethically contentious issues in bioethics.

Michael Sappol, National Library of Medicine
Michael Sappol is curator-historian at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), the author of A Traffic of Dead Bodies: Anatomy and Embodied Social Identity in 19th-Century America (2002), Dream Anatomy (2006), and co-editor of A Cultural History of the Body in the Age of Empire, 1800-1920 (2010).

Margrit Shildrick, University of Linkoping
Margrit Shildrick is Professor of Gender and Knowledge Production at the University of Linkoping.  She is the author of Dangerous Discourses: Subjectivity, Sexuality and Disability (2009), Embodying the Monster: Encounters with the Vulnerable Self (2002) and Leaky Bodies and Boundaries: Feminism, Postmodernism and (Bio)ethics (1997).

Susan Stryker, University of Arizona
Susan Stryker is Director of the Institute for LGBT Studies, and Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Arizona.  Her works include the Lambda Literary Award finalists Gay By the Bay: A History of Queer Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area (1996; co-authored with Jim Van Buskirk) and Queer Pulp: Perverse Passion in the Golden Age of the Paperback (2001), as well as the Lammie-winning anthology (co-edited with Stephen Whittle) The Transgender Studies Reader (2006). She co-directed, wrote, and produced the Emmy-winning public television documentary Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria with Victor Silverman (2005).

Elizabeth Stephens
ARC Research Fellow
Deputy Director
Centre for the History of European Discourses
Deputy Associate Dean of Research
Faculty of Arts
University of Queensland Australia 4072
Phone: 61 7 3346 9493
Fax: 61 7 3346 9495
Webpage: http://uq.academia.edu/ElizabethStephens<https://exchange.uq.edu.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://uq.academia.edu/ElizabethStephens>

From: Elizabeth Stephens
Sent: Friday, 17 June 2011 1:42 PM
To: Elizabeth Stephens
Subject: Conference Annoucment: Virtual Anatomies, Aug 30-31 2011, UQ

Virtual Anatomies:
The Cultural Impact of New Medical Imaging Technologies

Date: August 30-31, 2011
Venue: Innes Room, University of Queensland
Registration: Free, but essential for catering purposes

Over the last ten years, medical imaging technologies such as MRI and PET have not only come to play an increasingly central role in medical practice and research, but have also transformed the way bodies are seen and represented across a wide range of popular contexts.  Images of human anatomy and biological function circulate with great frequency on television shows as well as in government health campaigns and advertising for commercial products.  The speed with which the images produced by medical imaging technologies have entered into the popular sphere, along with the widespread public acceptance of these images as offering empirical proof about the truth of that body and its condition, is indicative of the profound influence imaging technologies now exert in shaping cultural attitudes towards the body and public expectations about its treatment.

The aim of this symposium is to assess the cultural impact of new medical imaging technologies, taking account of their popular effects while also evaluating the medical, ethical, legal and philosophical issues they raise.  Papers will consider, variously:

*         the development and clinical application of imaging technologies

*         the historical conditions in which they emerged and acquired their current cultural status

*         the systems of knowledge by which they are supported and ethical considerations they raise

*         the range of cultural, artistic and commercial purposes to which they are put

The cultural impact medical imaging technologies can be measured, in part, by the public hype surrounding the Visible Human, Digital Human and Human Genome Projects, by the commercialisation of brain imaging technologies in new fields like neuromarketing and neuroeconomics, by the submission of MRI and PET images as legal evidence in court cases, and by the appropriations of these images and technologies in contemporary visual arts.

"Virtual Anatomies: the Cultural Impact of New Medical Imaging Technologies" will bring together scientists, philosophers, artists, bioethicists, medical researchers, historians and cultural theorists to discuss the cultural impact of medical imagining technologies and their ethical, aesthetic and scientific consequences.  In so doing, the symposium is intended to take account of the new intersections art, science and culture produced by these technologies and their influence on changing the significance and understanding of human anatomy at the start of the twenty-first century.

This free event is supported by a University of Queensland Foundation Research Excellence Award.  Members of the public are welcome to attend.

Confirmed Keynotes Speakers

Oron Catts, University of Western Australia
Oron Catts is Director and founder of SymbioticA, Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts at the University of Western Australia.  He is an artist, researcher and a curator at the forefront of the emerging field of Biological arts.  He has been a Research Fellow at the Tissue Engineering and Organ Fabrication Laboratory, Harvard Medical School, and founded the Tissue Culture and Art Project in 1996.
Susan Dodds, University of Tasmania
Susan Dodds is Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Tasmania.  She is currently conducting research on three projects funded by the ARC: human vulnerability, ethical issues relating to nanomedicine/ bionics, and democratic policy making on ethically contentious issues in bioethics.

Michael Sappol, National Library of Medicine
Michael Sappol is curator-historian at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), the author of A Traffic of Dead Bodies: Anatomy and Embodied Social Identity in 19th-Century America (2002), Dream Anatomy (2006), and co-editor of A Cultural History of the Body in the Age of Empire, 1800-1920 (2010).

Margrit Shildrick, University of Linkoping
Margrit Shildrick is Professor of Gender and Knowledge Production at the University of Linkoping.  She is the author of Dangerous Discourses: Subjectivity, Sexuality and Disability (London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), Embodying the Monster: Encounters with the Vulnerable Self (London: Sage 2002), Shildrick, Margrit (1997) Leaky Bodies and Boundaries: Feminism, Postmodernism and (Bio)ethics (London and New York: Routledge, 1997)

Susan Stryker, University of Arizona
Susan Stryker is Director of the Institute for LGBT Studies, and Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Arizona.  Her works include the Lambda Literary Award finalists Gay By the Bay: A History of Queer Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area (1996; co-authored with Jim Van Buskirk) and Queer Pulp: Perverse Passion in the Golden Age of the Paperback (2001), as well as the Lammie-winning anthology (co-edited with Stephen Whittle) The Transgender Studies Reader (2006). She co-directed, wrote, and produced the Emmy-winning public television documentary Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria with Victor Silverman (2005).

Elizabeth Stephens
ARC Research Fellow
Deputy Director
Centre for the History of European Discourses
Deputy Associate Dean of Research
Faculty of Arts
University of Queensland Australia 4072
Phone: 61 7 3346 9493
Fax: 61 7 3346 9495
Webpage: http://uq.academia.edu/ElizabethStephens<https://exchange.uq.edu.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://uq.academia.edu/ElizabethStephens>

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