Inside out. New images and imaginations of the body.

Jeg har akkurat begynt som stipendiat ved Institutt for tverrfaglige kulturstudier ved NTNU, på Merete Lies prosjekt “Inside out. New images and imaginations of the body”. Arbeidstittelen på mitt prosjekt er “Kroppen, rekontekstualisert”, og skal analysere hva som skjer med vitenskapelige bilder av kroppen når de anvendes i andre kontekster slik som reklame, kunst og populærkultur. Her er et abstract på engelsk:

Inside out. New images and imaginations of the body.
Financed by the research programme on Cultural Values, KULVER, Norwegian Research Council 20010-2013

The theme of the project is how new imaging technologies contribute to redefining the body by making its inside visible on the level of cells. On a more general level, it questions how cultural values impact on science and technology and vice versa. By applying new imaging technologies, pictures taken of tiny body fragments are modified into astonishing and aesthetically appealing images that are used in research, in medical practice, but also in the media and in commercials. The production of these images takes place in an interface of science and popular culture. We will study how cultural values contribute in the processes of producing, interpreting and using the images and on how they draw new images of the human body that may contribute to changing imaginations of the body.

The research is of wide relevance in the sense that we will follow a scientific production process and study, firstly, if new technologies become a premise in setting new research agendas and, secondly, how cultural values and aesthetic preferences interfere in scientific practices and in science communities’ communication with colleagues, funding agencies and the general public. The project will provide new knowledge on how technologies function in relation to values and aesthetics and how science and technology are interacting with culture.

The research design includes following the images from the production process in the laboratory, to the use of them in medical practice and, finally, when they travel from science communities to media and the public. The study will focus on how new technologies are applied in the production of images on the level of cells and how new knowledge of the interior of the body is produced. It will follow the process when research results are transferred out of the lab to medical practice, media and art. Thus we will study the production and interpretation of images in interactions between scientists, practitioners, lay people and (bio)artists and ask which cultural values are referred to and activated in these processes. We will ask if new image technology may lead to new interpretations of the human body, of gender difference and reproduction, and to increasing the importance of visualisation in the general understanding of biology and the body.

During all these steps cultural values will be of importance for production and interpretation, and competing values will be called upon and challenged, such as the value of nature versus culture, values related to reproduction, conception and gender, the integrity of the body, and the role of science in society.

Research questions:
How do cultural values interact with the production and interpretation of new medical images? How do medical imaging technologies contribute to new imaginations and redefinitions of human bodies and organic processes of the body? How are medical images transformed when they leave the scientific context and reappear in popular culture?

The project will have three empirical foci:
• Fieldwork in an Image Laboratory to study how the images are produced.
• Fieldwork in medical practice to study how the meaning of cells is negotiated between medical personnel and lay people.
• Media and art analysis.

PhD project: Media and art analysis
The new medical images have a striking aesthetic appeal and are widely applied in the media, mainly as illustrations of stories from science and medicine but also in advertising. The images have also been taken up by artists, often working in cooperation with scientists. We will analyse how medical images are reproduced and reinterpreted in media and art.
To identify pictures used in the media and advertising we will refer to A TEKST, a database covering main newspapers in Norway. The study of art will be limited to two artists who are identified.

Key questions addressed:
What transformation processes take place when the images are travelling from the lab and into society? Are there important convergences and divergences between science stories and media stories of the body? What aspects of the body are most popular in media and art? How is gender reflected in the visualisation of cells and body parts? How does art contribute to new imaginations of the body?