The Beauty in Disease: a collaborative project of Medicine and Art
The Team: Luke C Barclay, Sean Redmond, Dr Lienors Torre, Dr Shaun Bangay
Traditional 2D/3D medical image(s) of the disease processes of cancer, are often mysterious and an uncoupled concept to a patient. Traditionally used as a diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment tools by traditional medicine, they frequently remain mysterious and abstract to the individuals to which they portray. The images mean nothing. Patients feel disconnected. They wonder what the tissue growing inside them that concurrently and robs them of physical health, strength and possibly life, looks like.
What remains a dichotomy is that the most horrendous oncology diagnosis can produce to the viewer, the most interesting structures. By transforming these images into artistic forms that depict the hidden beauty in their forms there will be a destigmatisation of them, making them ‘visible’ and ‘nameable’. These new visualisations offer alternative insights, communicate the nature of disease, and enable creative and innovative diagnostics unconstrained by immediate needs in healthcare. Viewers will be able to interact and respond to visualisations in many forms, incorporating aspects of virtual and augmented reality. Dynamic elements will show the development and response of the disease and communicate aspects of its invisible workings across a range of scales.
Chief Investigator: Luke C Barclay, Lecturer in Medical Imaging and Clinical Practice, Faculty of Health.
Collaborators: Professor of Screen and Design, Sean Redmond, Dr Lienors Torre, Senior Lecturer in Screen and Design and Dr Shaun Bangay, Senior lecturer in the School of Information Technology, all at Deakin University.