Frank Armitage Lecture Follow-Up
I was honored to participate in the Frank Armitage Lecture Series this year at University of Illinois, Chicago. The series is hosted by the Biomedical Visualization Department – what used to be called “Medical Illustration” – and is intended to highlight notable current practices in the field. My lecture, titled “Visualizing Anatomy through Écorché”, focused on historical representations of the figure through sculpture. In it I tried to emphasize the importance of an artistic understanding of the figure in biomedical visualization, not just a scientific one. While it’s true that elucidation of scientific principles is usually the goal of BVIS, it’s my belief that artistic mastery can make such illustrations far more effective.
I followed-up on the lecture with a short écorché demonstration featuring a life-size human arm and shoulder. Given the time constraints of the lecture format, I developed most of the model in advance, but discussed how artists can use clay to understand anatomy in 3-dimensions.
For a sample, check out the video below.
This was a great event. The hand dissection and the arm/hand écorché really complimented one another. And I was happy to see how genuinely interested the crowd was in the sculpture element – something that Mindy did well emphasizing as the unique contribution that écorché can make to anatomical study.