What I found extremely interesting was the
prosthetics and bionic arms that are made for those who have lost their limbs
and how early this kind of surgery was being performed. This is such an amazing
part of medicine because doctors can help people have relatively normal lives
after losing an arm or a leg. In part three for Professor Vesna’s lecture she
talked about Stelarc and his Third Arm. This arm was controlled by electro signals
of the muscles from his abdomen and his leg muscles so that the Third Arm could
move independent from the other hands (Vesna). The art of this pieces is so
striking to me because there is so much technology, as you can see from all the
wires and connections, that goes into creating this arm and its actions that
most people take for granted. It is so amazing to me that this piece of art was
able to work so well and he could actually write with it. Prosthetics and
bionic body parts have always been interesting to me because I was born with hip
dysplasia, so how the structure of the human body with prosthetics is always
amazing to me.
The Third Arm reminded me of a specific
case that was introduced to me in a neuroscience class. Jan Scheuermann had
been paralyzed for 13 years and with the use of a robotic arm, controlled by
her mind, she fed herself a bar of chocolate. This moment was months in the
making. “The research team from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
implanted two microelectrode devices into the woman’s left motor cortex, the
part of the brain that initiates movement.” (Reuters). After the implant was placed
the doctors asked Jan to think about moving her hand and they saw that the
neurons were firing, so they were hopeful that this experiment would actually
work, and it did. This story brings together everything that we have been studying
up to now and it is such an important step in the world of medicine and
technology that there may even be a day when people who are paralyzed could
have similar technology implanted in their brains to help them move their own limbs
again. But for now, perhaps there could be more collaboration between the
science and the art community to come up with a way to make Scheuermann’s robotic
arm appear less invasive.
Works Cited:
Amplified Body. Digital image. CEC:
Canadian Electroacoustis Community. 1985. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. < http://cec.sonus.ca/econtact/14_2/stelarc_gallery.html
>.
"Euronews Hi-tech - Paralysed Woman
Feeds Herself with Robotic Arm." YouTube. Euronews, 20 Dec. 2012.
Web. 24 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpujo0MUhBo>.
Reuters. "Paralyzed Woman Uses
Robotic Arm Controlled by Her Thoughts to Feed Herself." Washington
Post. The Washington Post, 31 Dec. 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/paralyzed-woman-uses-robotic-arm-controlled-by-her-thoughts-to-feed-herself/2012/12/31/d6c5eaae-4ad2-11e2-9a42-d1ce6d0ed278_story.html>.
Shedden, Mary. The Prosthetics Industry
Gets A Human Touch. Digital image. Health News Florida: Journalism for a
Healthy State. 12 Nov. 2014. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. <http://health.wusf.usf.edu/post/prosthetics-industry-gets-human-touch
>.
