[ecrea] Symposium Announcement: Virtual Anatomies, Aug 30-31 2011, UQ

*Virtual Anatomies:** **The Cultural Impact of New Medical Imaging 
Technologies*

*Date:* August 30-31, 2011

*Venue:* Innes Room, University of Queensland

*Registration:* Free, but essential for catering purposes

Over the last ten years, medical imaging technologies such as MRI and 
PET have not only come to play an increasingly central role in medical 
practice and research, but have also transformed the way bodies are seen 
and represented across a wide range of popular contexts.  Images of 
human anatomy and biological function circulate with great frequency on 
television shows as well as in government health campaigns and 
advertising for commercial products.  The speed with which the images 
produced by medical imaging technologies have entered into the popular 
sphere, along with the widespread public acceptance of these images as 
offering empirical proof about the truth of that body and its condition, 
is indicative of the profound influence imaging technologies now exert 
in shaping cultural attitudes towards the body and public expectations 
about its treatment.

The aim of this symposium is to assess the cultural impact of new 
medical imaging technologies, taking account of their popular effects 
while also evaluating the medical, ethical, legal and philosophical 
issues they raise.  Papers will consider, variously:

· the development and clinical application of imaging technologies

· the historical conditions in which they emerged and acquired their 
current cultural status

· the institutions and systems of knowledge by which they are supported 
and the ethical considerations they raise

· the range of cultural, artistic and commercial purposes to which they 
are put

The cultural impact medical imaging technologies can be measured, in 
part, by the public hype surrounding the Visible Human, Digital Human 
and Human Genome Projects, by the commercialisation of brain imaging 
technologies in new fields like neuromarketing and neuroeconomics, by 
the submission of MRI and PET images as legal evidence in court cases, 
and by the appropriations of these images and technologies in 
contemporary visual arts.

"Virtual Anatomies: the Cultural Impact of New Medical Imaging 
Technologies" will bring together scientists, philosophers, artists, 
bioethicists, medical researchers, historians and cultural theorists to 
discuss the cultural impact of medical imagining technologies and their 
ethical, aesthetic and scientific consequences.  In so doing, the 
symposium is intended to take account of the new intersections art, 
science and culture produced by these technologies and their influence 
on changing the significance and understanding of human anatomy at the 
start of the twenty-first century.

This free event is supported by a University of Queensland Foundation 
Research Excellence Award.  Members of the public are welcome to attend.

For further information, contact Elizabeth Stephens: 
(e.stephens /at/ uq.edu.au) <mailto:(e.stephens /at/ uq.edu.au)>

*Confirmed Keynotes Speakers *

*Oron Catts, University of Western Australia *

Oron Catts is Director and founder of SymbioticA, Centre of Excellence 
in Biological Arts at the University of Western Australia.  He is an 
artist, researcher and a curator at the forefront of the emerging field 
of Biological arts.  He has been a Research Fellow at the Tissue 
Engineering and Organ Fabrication Laboratory, Harvard Medical School, 
and founded the Tissue Culture and Art Project in 1996.

*Susan Dodds, University of Tasmania*

Susan Dodds is Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the Faculty of Arts 
at the University of Tasmania.  She is currently conducting research on 
three projects funded by the ARC: human vulnerability, ethical issues 
relating to nanomedicine/ bionics, and democratic policy making on 
ethically contentious issues in bioethics.

* *

*Michael Sappol, National Library of Medicine*
Michael Sappol is curator-historian at the National Library of Medicine 
(U.S.), the author of /A Traffic of Dead Bodies: Anatomy and Embodied 
Social Identity in 19th-Century America/ (2002), /Dream Anatomy/ (2006), 
and co-editor of /A Cultural History of the Body in the Age of Empire, 
1800-1920 /(2010).

*Margrit Shildrick, University of Linkoping*

Margrit Shildrick is Professor of Gender and Knowledge Production at the 
University of Linkoping.  She is the author of /Dangerous Discourses: 
Subjectivity, Sexuality and Disability/ (2009), /Embodying the Monster: 
Encounters with the Vulnerable Self/ (2002) and /Leaky Bodies and 
Boundaries: Feminism, Postmodernism and (Bio)ethics/ (1997).

* *

*Susan Stryker, University of Arizona*

Susan Stryker is Director of the Institute for LGBT Studies, and 
Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of 
Arizona.  Her works include the Lambda Literary Award finalists /Gay By 
the Bay: A History of Queer Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area 
/(1996; co-authored with Jim Van Buskirk) and /Queer Pulp: Perverse 
Passion in the Golden Age of the Paperback/ (2001), as well as the 
Lammie-winning anthology (co-edited with Stephen Whittle) /The 
Transgender Studies Reader /(2006). She co-directed, wrote, and produced 
the Emmy-winning public television documentary /Screaming Queens: The 
Riot at Compton's Cafeteria /with Victor Silverman (2005).

Elizabeth Stephens
ARC Research Fellow

Deputy Director

Centre for the History of European Discourses
Deputy Associate Dean of Research

Faculty of Arts

University of Queensland Australia 4072
Phone: 61 7 3346 9493
Fax: 61 7 3346 9495

Webpage: http://uq.academia.edu/ElizabethStephens 
<https://exchange.uq.edu.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://uq.academia.edu/ElizabethStephens>