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Embodied Fantasies: Multi-disciplnary Conference, SVA, October 28-30 2011

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Danzig

I have just been alerted to a pretty fantastic sounding conference that will be taking place at School of Visual Arts in New York City this October. Details follow; hope to see you there!

Embodied Fantasies:
International Conference
October 28-30 2011
SVA, Fine Arts Building
335 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011
Embodied Fantasies, a concept central to art history, theory and practice is concurrently a topic debated in the fields of the neuro-and-cognitive sciences, philosophy and phenomenology. This theme will be addressed in a transdisciplinary conference hosting scholars and artists from the fields of architecture, art history, visual art, history of science and psychology among others. Discussions will focus on concepts of embodiment as they relate to sexuality, aesthetics, epistemology, perception and fantasy itself. Approaches to the role of fantasies will be viewed beyond traditional conceptions to include complex thinking processes, subjectivity, and the inter-subjective. Prominent attention will be paid to fantasies and images as a form of knowledge production.
Panel I: Oxymoronic Places and Spaces
Alex Arteaga: What Is a Fantasy in a Non-given World?
Sabine Flach: Negotiations and Metamorphosis: Visualizing Carsten Höllers' SOMA
Suzanne Anker: Neo-Neuro: Untangling Utopia
Boris Goesl: Star Arts or Celestial Embodiments
Dan Hutto: Moderator

Panel II: Ghost Hearts
Mark Dery: (title pending)
Alva Noe: Making Pictures, Making Worlds Available
Sabine Flach: Moderator
Panel III: Thwarted Expectations
Gerhard Scharbert: Fantasias: Experimental Induced Psychosis and Modern Aesthetics in 19th Century France
Arthur Miller: Creative Processes Within Fantasies: The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung Frank Gillette: Experimental Epistemology: Patterns That Connect Dan Hutto: Embodied Imaginings
Alex Arteaga: Moderator
Plenary Speakers
Gabriele Brandstetter: Fantasies of the Catastrophe: Embodiment and Kinaesthetic Awareness in the Performance-installation of Naoko Tanaka's "Die Scheinwerferin" (2011)
Sabine Flach and Suzanne Anker: Moderators
Panel IV: Pose and Expose
Alexander Schwan: Body Calligraphies: Dance as an Embodied Fantasy of Writing
Nicola Hille: Embodied Fantasies: Spencer Tunick's Body Sculptures
Shelley Rice: The Grass is Always Greener: Self-Portraiture in the Age of Facebook
Suzanne Anker: Moderator
Panel V: Between the Flesh and the Shell
McKenzie Wark: A Minimum of Serious Seduction: The Situationist International as Embodied Fantasies
Zoran Terzi?: From Phantasia to Phantasma – Embodied Notions and the Anticipation of Politics Through the Arts
Frank Gillette: Moderator
Panel VI: Shadowing Fire
Margareta Hesse: Carousels of Perception
Romana Filzmoser: Chimerizing the Body: Art theoretical Concepts of Fantasy in Italian and English 17 Century Obscene Literature
Laura Taler: SPIEGELEI: Affect as Lever
Mathius Kessler: (title pending)
Arthur Miller: Moderator
General Public: $150
Graduate and Undergraduate Students: $75
Order tickets via Eventbrite by clicking here.
Conference Organizers
Suzanne Anker
Chair, BFA Fine Arts Department
School of Visual Arts, NYC
PD Dr. Sabine Flach
Visiting Scholar
BFA Fine Arts Department
School of Visual Arts, NYC

You can see the full schedule and get more details by clicking here. You can purchase tickets by clicking here.

Image: Suzanne Anker, Embodied Fantasies, 2011. Inkjet print.

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The Midnight Archive Episode 1: Modern Day Mummies, Online and Available for Viewing!

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Danzig

The Midnight Archives: Tales From the Observatory is a new web-based documentary series "centered around the esoteric and always exotic personalities that spring from Observatory," the Brooklyn-based event/gallery space I run with a handful of other collaborators. The series is created and directed by film-maker Ronni Thomas, who has plans to upload approximately one new episode per week to the new Midnight Archive website.

Episode one, entitled Modern Day Mummies--which documents the work of Sorceress Cagliastro, our esteemed Observatory mummification instructor--has just been uploaded and is now available for viewing! You can check out the video above, but make sure to keep visiting The Midnight Archive website (which can be found here) or sign up for their mailer in order to catch exciting, soon-to-be-uploaded episodes featuring such Observatory luminaries as anthropomorphic taxidermy teacher Sue Jeiven, automaton keeper Jere Ryder, and occult walking tour mastermind Mitch Horowitz. You can get a sense of some of the other pieces and personalities you have to look forward to by viewing the teaser on Boing Boing by clicking here.

And, just a quick FYI: We have a few last openings for Sorceress Cagliastro's next mummification class, which will take place October 9th; if you are interested in enrolling, please email me at morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com; more on the class can be found here.

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Call for Papers: Sensualising Deformity: Communication and Construction of Monstrous Embodiment, Edinburgh, June 15-16

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Danzig

I just got word of a call for papers for an excellent sounding upcoming conference. Details below:

The University of Edinburgh
Sensualising Deformity: Communication and Construction of Monstrous Embodiment
June 15-16, 2012
Confirmed Plenary Speakers:
Prof. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
George Washington University
Dr. Peter Hutchings
Northumbria University
From freak exhibitions and fairs, medical examinations and discoveries to various portrayals in arts and literature, images of deformity (or monstrosity, used separately or interchangeably depending on context) have captivated us for centuries. The result is a significant body of critical and artistic works where these bodies are dissected, politicized, exhibited, objectified or even beatified. Nonetheless, there remains a gap, an unexplored, unspoken or neglected aspect of this complex field of study which needs further consideration. This two-day interdisciplinary conference aims to bring the senses and the sensuous back to the monstrous or deformed body from the early modern period through to the mid-twentieth century, and seeks to explore its implications in diverse academic fields.
We hope to bring together scholars and students from a wide range of disciplines to engage in a constructive dialogue, network, and exchange ideas and experiences, connecting a community of researchers who share a fascination with deformity, monstrosity, and freakery.
Possible topics may include (but are not limited to):
Spectacle/fetishisation of monstrosity and deformity; monstrous sexuality/eroticisation
The monster as a catalyst of progression/ historical perspectives
Monstrous symbolism, prodigality, or beatification
The racialised body; exoticising difference
Monstrosity in medical literature; disability narratives
Monstrous becoming; the ‘sensed’ body
Deformed aesthetics; monstrosity in the visual arts
(De) gendering the deformed body; humanisation vs objectification
We welcome proposals for 20-minute presentations from established scholars, postdoctoral researchers and postgraduate students from various teratological backgrounds, e.g. in literature, history, media and art studies, philosophy, religious studies, history of science,medical humanities, and critical and cultural theory. Proposals should be no more than 300 words, in .doc format, and should include a brief 50-word biography.
Please submit your abstracts no later than 31 January 2012 to sdefconference@ed.ac.uk
Dr. Karin Sellberg (The University of Edinburgh)
Ally Crockford (The University of Edinburgh)
Maja Milatovic (The University of Edinburgh)

For more info, visit the conference blog by clicking here.

Image: From the conference blog, where they cite the images as courtesy of the BMJ Publishing Group, BMJ 1889, June 8; 1(1484): 1288–1289.

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Organ Donor Designer Toys Back in Stock

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Danzig

Organ Donor vinyl toys by David Foox are back in stock! These little guy are becoming quite rare so grab a few while you can. $15 each at the Street Anatomy store.

Organ Donor vinyl toys by David Foox

David created these vinyls in order to promote organ donation. All ORGAN DONORS come individually boxed in a blind box concept—meaning, it is a surprise as to which ORGAN DONOR you will receive!

Some are more rare than others (Black Market Kidneys, Pickled Liver, etc) and all come wearing the vinyl hospital gown with the butt cheeks showing.

Height: 3.25″
$15 each at the Street Anatomy store

Source:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/streetanatomy/OQuC

Jennifer Griggs

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Danzig

Artist Jennifer Griggs told me she loves anatomy but realized too late in life that she should have been a medical illustrator. I’ve had a lot of people tell me the same thing over the years, and I say, it’s never too late! Jennifer creates these gorgeous pieces in between a busy life and working at a hospital at night. I look forward to seeing more of Jennifer’s work in the future.

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Turn On Some Nipples

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Danzig

Designer Naama Arbel created these felt light sculptures that are turned on when you pull on the silicon “nipple,” or as the designer says, they “awaken by touch.”

If you read through the comments on the original post on Dezeen, these nipple lights have drawn a lot of mixed reactions from people, mostly negative. My question to you is, would you have a different perception of the concept if a woman had designed these nipple lights?

[Spotted by Ryan Jones via Dezeen]

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Anatomy in Korea with Dr. Oh

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Danzig

A few days ago, I met with the very lovely and generous anatomist Dr. Chang-Seok Oh, referred to me by my friend Ross MacFarlane. I had been interested in viewing medical or old natural history collections here in Seoul, and Dr. Oh had kindly offered to take me to see an anatomical collection of a Catholic university hospital where he had a contact. The collection had a number of interesting pieces, the most outstanding being a 17th Century mummy unearthed at an archeological excavation; there were also a number of forensic reconstructions. Images of the collection can be seen above.

Dr. Oh then took me back to his office, where we gushed about our shared interest in post-Vesalius/pre-Gray's Anatomy anatomical history, and where he shared with me his beautiful original copy of the 18th century Ontleedkundige Tafelen. This book, Dr. Oh explained to me, is of the greatest importance to Asian medicine, as it was the first Western medical book translated for Eastern consumption, published in Japan (with some additions from other texts) as Kaitai Shinsho in 1774. The book then made the rounds in Asia, changing the face of Eastern medicine forever. We did a side by side comparison of the original book and a facsimile of the 18th century Japanese Kaitai Shinsho; you can see those side by side comparisons above. I really liked the visual translation that occurs as the images move from the West to the East.

Click on images to see much larger, more detailed versions. Its worth it! And thanks to Ross MacFarlane and Deborah Leem for making this happen!

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Skull “Hobo” Nickels

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Danzig

Skull Hobo Nickel

Man, I wish we had legit coins as cool as this, but it wouldn’t be as special if it were machine made this way. These gems are a sampling of skull carved “hobo” nickels, mostly stemming from the 1930s depression era.

The sudden scarcity of jobs in the early 1930s forced a huge number of men to hit the road. Certainly some coins were carved to fill the idle hours. More importantly, a ‘knight of the road,’ with no regular source of income, could take one of these plentiful coins and turn it into a folk art piece, which could in turn be sold or traded for small favors such as a meal or shelter for a night.

Coin carvers would cover buffalo nickels with all kinda of folk art, faces, scenes, and skulls and have become a collectors items these days and more can be read about these rad coins here. Also, check out some more skull coins here.

[via thisiscolossal]

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Rubber, Steel and Bones

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Danzig

Motorbikes are a popular interest of mine, I think they look beautiful and I hope to own one some day. These bikes immediately took my fancy and I hope they take yours.

John Farr is a custom bike designer and creator who made this beautiful piece of machinery named ‘The Crypt’. The motorcycle is now a jaw-dropping spectacle when its cruisin’ around, continuously being stopped for pictures.

John Holt is a self taught metal bender and the creator of this motorcycle ‘Iron Death’. Holt started off making medieval styled armour and now owns a shop in Boone County, Illinois, where the bike was originally built. The bike now lives in The Petersen Automotive Museum in L.A.

Getgeared.co.uk are selling a The Universal Motorcycle Mirror Skeleton Hand for £39.95 each for your own custom anatomy.

Artist Eric Tryon, fashioned together this marvellous bicycle, flexible enough so that when you turn so does the skull.

Jud Turner designed this artwork named the ‘Bio-Cycle’ along with other skull inspired creations and anatomic bikes.

The motorbike styled toy I thought was quite cute, The Boneshaker Skeleton Motorbike is 26cm in length and is £19.15 from Amazon.co.uk

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Disfigurines

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Danzig

Justin Novak Disfigurines

Not what you’d normally find on your mother’s mantle, Justin Novak twists the snooty figurine into a self-mutilating mockery, because none of use are pristine figures.

Novak says of his work:

The ceramic figurine has historically embodied a mainstream, bourgeois ideology, and for this reason, I have employed it in the presentation of an alternative vision, an ironic anti-figurine, or ‘disfigurine.’ In the ‘disfigurine’ series, physical wounds such as bruises and lacerations serve as metaphors for psychological harm. Whereas the figurine has historically represented the dominant culture’s norms and ideals, the disfigurines speak of the damage inflicted by those very same expectations

View all of Justin’s work at justinnovak.com.

[via Dentsu London]

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Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe, Exhibition, Through December 10th

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Danzig

I have just been alerted to a pretty great looking exhibition on through December 10th at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard. Entitled "Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe," the exhibition features not only prints but also flap anatomies (!!!), books, maps, and scientific instruments, all intended to explore "the role of celebrated artists in the scientific inquiries of the 16th century."

Full information follows, from the exhibition website:

Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe
Sep 6 2011 — Dec 10 2011
Arthur M. Sackler Museum
Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge examines how celebrated Northern Renaissance artists contributed to the scientific investigations of the 16th century. The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue challenge the perception of artists as illustrators in the service of scientists. Artists’ printed images served as both instruments for research and agents in the dissemination of knowledge. The exhibition, displaying prints, books, maps, and such instruments as sundials, globes, astrolabes, and armillary spheres, looks at relationships between their producers and their production, as well as among the objects themselves. The story of 16th-century technology is enhanced by technology of the 21st, with interactive computers in the galleries, an interactive module on the website, and an iPhone/iPad application in iTunes (check back here soon for an update on availability).
Curated by Susan Dackerman, Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Curator of Prints, Division of European and American Art, Harvard Art Museums. Organized in collaboration with the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
Opening Panel Discussion and Reception: September 6, 2011, 5–8pm.
Symposium: December 2, 2011, 5–8pm (evening program), and December 3, 2011, 8:30am–6:30pm (day program).
For more special programming related to the exhibition, such as tours, talks, concerts, and Family Days, see the Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge section of our calendar.
Admission note: During Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge, admission to the Sackler Museum galleries will be free on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 3–5pm.
Travel dates:
– September 6–December 10, 2011
Harvard Art Museums
Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, MA
– January 17–April 8, 2012
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue are made possible by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Mrs. Arthur K. Solomon, Lionel and Vivian Spiro, Walter and Virgilia Klein, Julian and Hope Edison, Novartis on behalf of Dr. Steven E. Hyman, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Barbara and the late Robert Wheaton, the Goldman Sachs Foundation, and an anonymous donor. Additional support is provided by the Harvard Art Museums’ endowment funds: the Alexander S., Robert L., and Bruce A. Beal Exhibition Fund; Anthony and Celeste Meier Exhibitions Fund; Charlotte F. and Irving W. Rabb Exhibition Fund; and Melvin R. Seiden and Janine Luke Fund for Publications and Exhibitions.

You can find out more by clicking here; you can find out about--an order a copy of!--the catalog by clicking here.

Thanks to Daniel Margocsy, who helped put it together, for passing this along!

Images all drawn the exhibition page; full info including captions can be found by clicking here.

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"Not for the Squeamish: The History of Artists and Anatomists," Lecture/Studio Class, Jonathon Rosen, School of Visual Arts

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Danzig

For all of you New Yorkers out there: friend of Morbid Anatomy Jonathon Rosen has just alerted me to an amazing sounding class he'll be teaching as part of The School of Visual Art's continuing education series. He has also asked me to give a lecture as part of the course, so maybe I'll see you there!

This class is open and available to all; full details below. Hope very much to see you there!

Not for the Squeamish: The History of Artists and Anatomists

ILC-2196-A

T, Sep 20 - Nov 22

Hours: 06:30PM - 09:15PM

2.50 CEUs; $335.00

Course Status: Open

Location: TBA

Register for this class by clicking here!
Temple of the soul or soft machine? The human body is a place where art, science, culture, politics and medicine intersect. This lecture/studio course will focus on artists from ancient to modern who use the body as a point of departure for personal, political, religious or scientific commentary, and will provide an opportunity for students to do likewise. The influence of traditional medical imagery on contemporary art-making and pop culture will be explored through the lens of history, culture and aesthetics. Examples will range from medieval manuscripts and obscure Renaissance medical surrealism through enlightenment era wax-works, Victorian charts and medical devices to Damien Hirst, the virtual human project, Bodyworlds, and beyond. Aesthetic surgery, genetics, biomechanics, medical museums, anatomy in movies, French underground comix and anatomical oddities will also be considered. Your assignment will be to respond to the lectures with several editorial artworks that incorporate medicine or anatomy-be it personal or political, singular or narrative, 2D or 3D, static or moving. Students may use the medium of their choice; projects are not required to be anatomically correct. Prerequisite: A basic drawing, photo-collage or photography course, or equivalent.
Jonathon Rosen

Painter, illustrator, animator
One-person exhibitions include: La Luz De Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles; Adam Baumgold Fine Art; Studio Camuffo, Venice
Group exhibitions include: Triennali, Milan; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; P.S. 1, Contemporary Art Center; Kunstwerk, Berlin; Exit Art
Publications include: American Illustration Annual, Print, World Art, LA Weekly, Eye (London)
Books include: Intestinal Fortitude, The Birth of Machine Consciousness
Clients include: The New York Times, Snake Eyes, Time, Rolling Stone, MTV, Blab!, Sony Music, The Ganzfeld, Details. Journal drawings for Sleepy Hollow, Tim Burton, director
Awards and honors include: Gold and silver medals, Society of Publication Designers; artist-in-residence, Harvestworks
Website: http://jrosen.org/

You can find out more--and register!--by clicking here.

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A man-made creation detailed enough to make Mother Nature jealous…

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Danzig

Katsuyo Aoki is a Japanese ceramic artist with a nack for designing intricate skull-inspired sculptures. Winning award after award, Aoki takes the form of a human skull and transforms it into a complicated maze of ceramic beauty.

…I use ceramics as my material in my method of expression, incorporating various decorative styles, patterns, and symbolic forms as my principal axis in creating my works. The decorative styles and forms I allude to and incorporate in my works each contain a story based on historical backgrounds and ideas, myths, and allegories. Also, the technique of ceramics has a tradition that has been a part of the history of decoration over a long time, and I feel the delicateness and fragile tension of the substantial material well express my concept.

Check out the video of her work; even though the whole thing is in Japanese, it doesn’t stop the art looking incredible.

Source:
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Typography and Classic Medicine—Prints by Stephen Gaeta

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Danzig

These masterfully rendered typographical medical prints were the creation of designer, doctor and future cardiologist, Stephen Gaeta. Stephen originated the popular diploma heart posted back in March 2011—so popular that the surge in traffic almost crashed Street Anatomy!

We’ve had the honor to team up with Stephen to bring you this series of typographical medical prints, Beat Poetry, Extra Ocular, Reactant, and Transgenic.

Beat Poetry 11" x 17" on eco-friendly thick matte stock

Text taken from Cases of the Organic Disease of the Heart, with Dissections and Some Remarks Intended to Point Out the Distinctive Symptoms of These Diseases, by John Collins Warren, 1809

Beat Poetry by Stephen Gaeta available at Street Anatomy

Beat Poetry detail

Extra Ocular by Stephen Gaeta available at Street Anatomy

Extra Ocular 11" x 11" on eco-friendly thick matte stock

Text taken from The Motions of the Retina Demonstrated by Experiments, from Zoonomia, by Erasmus Darwin. 1794.

Extra Ocular detail

Transgenic by Stephen Gaeta available at Street Anatomy

Transgenic 17" x 11" on eco-friendly thick matte stock

Text taken from Chromosome 1 of the Human Genome Project

Transgenic detail

Reactant by Stephen Gaeta available at Street Anatomy

Reactant 11" x 17" on eco-friendly thick matte stock

Text taken from The Sceptical Chymist, by Robert Boyle. 1661<.small>

Reactant detail

Each print is:

Created with text from classic medical literature pertaining to each subject
On eco-friendly thick matte stock
Printed sustainably using 100% wind power, responsibly harvested paper and vegetable based printing ink
Available for $25 at the Street Anatomy store!

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"Books and Babies: Communicating Reproduction," Exhibition, Cambridge University Library, Through December 23, 2011

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Danzig

Picture books teach children the facts of life. We are always reading about reproduction. Reproduction also describes what communication media do—multiply images, sounds and text for wider consumption. This exhibition is about these two senses of reproduction, about babies and books, and the ways in which they have interacted in the past and continue to interact today. Before reproduction there was generation, a broader view of how all things come into being than passing on the blueprint of a particular form of life. Before electronic media there were clay figurines, papyrus, parchment, printed books and journals. The interactions between communication media and ideas about reproduction have transformed the most intimate aspects of our lives.

This from the new exhibition "Books and Babies: Communicating Reproduction," which will be on view at Cambridge University Library through December 23, 2011. For those of you who are unable tovisit in person (like myself!), you can console yourself with the excellent web exhibition--from which the above images are drawn--by clicking here. You can find out more about visiting the exhibition here.

Thanks to Nick Hopwood and Eric Huang for sending this to my attention!

Images:

Aristotle’s Works: containing the Master-Piece, Directions for Midwives, and Counsel and Advice to Child-Bearing Women. With various useful remedies (c.1850). Private collection, frontispiece and title page
From Omnium humani corporis… (1641), an anatomical booklet made up of woodcut illustrations copied from earlier books under the supervision of Walther Ryff, a prolific producer of texts intended for a broad range of readers.
Plate from Cesare Lombroso's textbook L’Uomo Delinquente ... (1889)

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"Cultures of Anatomical Collections Conference," Call for Papers, Leiden University, February 15-18 2012

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Danzig

Image: Museum of Anatomical Waxes “Luigi Cattezneo” Bologna, Italy, part of the Anatomical Theatre Exhibition © Joanna Ebenstein

Call for papers: Cultures of Anatomical Collections International Conference, Leiden University 15-18 February 2012
The conference ‘Cultures of Anatomical Collections’ will explore anatomical preparations and collections (preparations of human material as well as wax- and other models) as important parts of our cultural heritage. This means that we treat them in a similar way as we would examine other historical artifacts stored in today’s museum. Although the history of anatomy and anatomical illustrations has been a popular topic in the history of medicine during the last decade, the history of its material remains has been somewhat neglected. And yet, in particular when taking into account recent historiographies of materiality and medical practices, it offers challenging interdisciplinary questions on the history of anatomy as a whole. Possible topics include: How do the technical details of anatomical preparations tell us about the ideas of their maker; How do ideas on beauty and perfection shape preparations; How were preparations handled and used for teaching purposes: How does the interest of non-medical audiences shape anatomical preparations? On collections as a whole we can ask: How are particular collections build up; How do decisions of curators affect the build-up of collections; How does the housing of a collection affect its outlook and popularity?
The conference has keynote lectures and the following sessions:

Keynote Lectures : Ruth Richardson and Andrew Cunningham
1. Beauty, Perfection and Materiality in Early Modern Anatomical Collections Organiser: Marieke Hendriksen ; Confirmed speaker: Anita Guerrini

This session deals with questions regarding the materiality and aesthetics of early modern anatomical preparations. So far historians of medicine have described the beauty and perfection of early modern anatomical preparations using modern (post-Kantian) understandings of aesthetics. Yet, early modern anatomical preparations must be related to early modern ideas of aesthetics, which were about beauty and perfection as well as about sense perception and experiment. Possible questions include: How does the materiality of preparations tell us more about contemporary ideals of beauty and perfection and vice versa? How can changes in theses ideals be traced in the make-up of anatomical collections? How are beauty and perfection related to natural philosophical ideas on sense perception and experiment? How do ideas of beauty and perfection relate to the morality of the early modern anatomical theatre?
2. Anatomical Collections and Scientific Medicine in the Nineteenth Century Organiser: Hieke Huistra; Confirmed speaker: Simon Chaplin

With the birth of the clinic and the introduction of laboratory methods, medicine in the nineteenth century changed profoundly. At first sight it would seem as if these changes would pose a threat to the position and function of anatomical collections in research and teaching. This was, however, not the case – institutional anatomical collections flourished in the nineteenth century. In this session we explore questions such as what were the status and function of early modern collections in the nineteenth century? How were old (in most cases early modern) preparations displayed and used in the new scientific medicine? How did the use, content, accessibility and display change during the nineteenth century? How did the new collections relate to the ‘new’ disciplines of comparative anatomy and pathology?
3. Handling Anatomical Collections Organiser: Rina Knoeff; Confirmed speakers: Sam Alberti, Tim Huisman

This session is directed at exploring the role of the curator of the anatomical museum. Almost invisible and hardly discussed in historical discourse, he is daily busy and literally in touch with the collections. He has always been of utmost importance for the making of preparations and the general outlook of anatomical collections. Possible questions include: What are the tasks of a curator and how have they changed over time? How did/does a curator determine the outlook of a preparation and collection? How did/does he influence the focus, significant silences and boundaries of collections? How did/do his responsibilities oscillate between professional medics and the public? How did/does he merge the interests of these two groups?
4. Anatomical Collections as Public History Organiser: Rina Knoeff; Confirmed speaker: Anna Maerker

This session is about the role of the public in the making and survival of anatomical collections. Faced with recent controversies surrounding the public exhibition of human material (in particular Körperwelten) anatomical museums are faced with the questions of which exhibits should be on show, for what purposes (teaching or general interest?) and how they should be exhibited. Yet, these questions are of all times – after all, anatomical collections have almost always been publically accessible. Studying the history of anatomical collections from the public perspective can answer questions such as how are historical preparations presented in (today’s) museum and how have their public meanings transformed over time? How has public curiosity been regulated? How has the public eye influenced the presentation of a preparation?
5. Comments and Final Discussion Organisers: Rina Knoeff, Marieke Hendriksen, Hieke Huistra, Rob Zwijnenberg.
Contact: Rina Knoeff on r.knoeff@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Deadline: Proposals for 20 mins. papers can be send to Rina Knoeff until 16 September 2011.

You can find out more about this excellent looking conference here. Thanks to Kristen Ehrenberger for sending this along!

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Anatomic Fashion Friday: Somaphony

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Danzig

I am loving these new quirkly anatomical shirts by Washington D.C. based, Somaphony. The shirts, designed by ICU nurse and music lover, Nate, combine elements of the body and sound.

Nate says of his inspiration:

The first Somaphony concept came to me when I was at a live jazz show at HR-57 a jazz venue in Washington, DC. I was watching and listening to an amazing trumpet solo and the trumpet was so loud and powerful that I pictured a pair of lungs blowing out of the trumpet.

All Somaphony t-shirts are only $20 and are available at somaphony.com!

Source:
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Deltoid Zipper

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Danzig

David Arguello submitted his sweet tattoo exposing his deltoid. Love the texture of the muscle, makes you want to touch it. Tattoo done by Yomico Moreno in Caracas, Venezuela.

Source:
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"Conjuring & Circus: Books, Prints, Posters and Apparatus" Auction, Bloomsbury Auctions, London, September 8

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Danzig

It has just come to my attention that Bloomsbury Auction House in London, England will be auctioning off a pretty epic collection of 729 lots related to "conjuring and circus"--a few of my favorites above--this Thursday September 8th.

You can find out more--and learn how to bid!--on the Bloomsbury Auction website by clicking here. Thanks so much to Morbid Anatomy reader Janine Veazue for sending this along!

All images sourced from the auction website; details about each can be found here.

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Skinscrapers

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Danzig

I’m a big fan of zines and have a secret wish to create a Street Anatomy zine someday. In the meantime you can check out this recent release from SOILED, a zine showcasing the “interstices of architecture, urbanism, and the pedosphere.” They publish twice a year on each solstice and their latest issue, Skinscrapers, focuses on the human body!

Skinscrapers probes how our bodies interact with the spaces around them and how the spaces we inhabit can become extensions of our bodies. By focusing on the surface of the skin as a natural mediator, Skinscrapers navigates a continuum of scale, starting inside the gut, proceeding to the contours of the body, and culminating in the anthropomorphic city.

Download a copy of Skinscrapers for free!

Source:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/streetanatomy/OQuC

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