[csaa-forum] Virtual Anatomies Symposium: Programme Available

[Elizabeth Stephens]

Dear Colleagues,

The programme for this symposium is now available on our website, http://www.ched.uq.edu.au/index.html?page=159754&pid=40622.

Please note the change of venue.  The symposium will now be held at the Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland.


Virtual Anatomies: The Cultural Impact of New Medical Imaging Technologies

Date: August 30-31, 2011
Venue: Level 7 Auditorium of the Queensland Brain Institute
                The University of Queensland
Street Address: Building 79, Upland Road, St Lucia.
                Map: http://www.uq.edu.au/maps/index.html?menu=1&id=277
Please consult the University of Queensland website for public transport and parking options
Registration: Free, but essential for catering purposes.  Please note if you are only attending part of the symposium.

Over the last ten years, new imaging technologies have come to play an increasingly important role in medical research and practice.  During the same period, images of the body produced by these technologies have begun to circulate across a broad range of popular contexts.  On television shows, in government health campaigns and advertising for commercial products, images of the body's interior have been widely represented as revealing the truth about the body and its condition.  The aim of this symposium is to assess the cultural impact of such images in reshaping how bodies are seen and understood in a variety of popular, commercial and clinical contexts.

The range of applications of medical imaging technologies is growing exponentially: from the development of virtual anatomical atlases like Human Genome and Visible Human Projects, to the use of MRI and PET images as legal evidence, the recent turn to the biological in psychiatric practice, the commercialisation of brain scanning in neuromarketing and neuroenhancement, and the emergence of new biological arts.  For this reason, the extent to which these technologies form an important lens through which contemporary publics are trained to see the body is only likely to increase in the years ahead.

Bringing together neuroscientists, philosophers, artists, bioethicists, medical researchers, historians and cultural theorists, "Virtual Anatomies: The Cultural Impact of New Medical Imaging Technologies" will consider the medical, ethical, aesthetic and philosophical issues raised by the increasing use of imaging technologies in the first decade of the twenty-first century.  In so doing, the symposium is intended take account of the new intersections of art, science and bodies to which these technologies are currently giving rise.

Topics to be examined include:
* the new clinical and commercial applications of imaging technologies
* the historical conditions that have shaped their emergence and public reception
* the philosophical and bioethical considerations they raise
* the cultural, artistic and commercial purposes to which they are put

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

For more information, please contact Elizabeth Stephens: e.stephens at uq.edu.au<mailto:e.stephens at uq.edu.au>.
To register for the symposium, please contact Rebekah Oldfield r.oldfield at uq.edu.au<mailto:r.oldfield at uq.edu.au>.
Abstracts and information on speakers will be updated on the conference website as available: http://www.ched.uq.edu.au/index.html?page=159754&pid=40622.


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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