Medicine and Art have shared a long relationship. From early anatomical illustrations, artistic expressions of disability and to the conflicts of artistic and medical human experimentation, the medicine and the art fields have shared a constant fascination with the human body. Both have constantly searched for new means of making visible what is unseen and expressing the tension between what one knows and what one feels about the body. As technology has constantly become more and more miniaturised we are now able to apply these tools to spaces that would have had proved extremely difficult to occupy and explore in...
to host the event, seeked medical advice and was informed of the risks involved with suspension. He also found it hard to find a hospital willing to admit the artist if he encountered any problems during either of the performances. One could argue that while Stelarc, Orlan and other medical and anatomically based artist are not medical experts, their expertise as artists extend far beyond traditional artistic mediums to a very precise knowledge of the materials with which they work. Although this is not a formally credited medical knowledge, it is by far vaster than that of the layman.