From Roentgen to Rembrandt, Hounsfield to Hollywood and Vesalius to videogames, Imagining Imaging explores the deeply entwined relationship between art (and visual-based culture) and radiology / medical imaging. Including artworks from numerous historical eras representing varied geographic locations and visual traditions, alongside a diverse range of contemporary artists, Dr Jackson argues that the foundations of medical image construction and interpretation were laid down in artistic innovations dating back hundreds and thousands of years. Since the discovery of X-rays, artists and moviemakers have, in turn, drawn rich inspiration from radiographic imagery and concepts, but the process of cross-pollination between art and science has continued, with creative endeavour continuing to mould medical imaging examinations to this day.
Blending a unique mix of art, science and medical history, together with aspects of visual neurophysiology and psychology, Imagining Imaging is essential reading for radiologists, radiographers and artists alike. Peppered with familiar TV and film references, personal insights into the business of image interpretation, and delivered in an accessible and humorous style, the book will also appeal to anyone who enjoys looking at pictures.
Key features:
- Engaging synthesis of art and medical history, combined with anecdotes and experiences from a working clinical radiologist
- Diverse range of visual reference points including astronomy, botany and cartography, alongside comprehensive discussion of medical imaging modalities including plain radiography, ultrasound, CT and MRI
- 200 full colour illustrations
Contents
Foreword....................................................................................................................ix
Acknowledgements....................................................................................................xi
Author..................................................................................................................... xiii
Chapter 1 Origins...................................................................................................1
Chapter 2 The Eye’s Mind...................................................................................27
Chapter 3 Art, Artefact, and Artifice................................................................... 51
Chapter 4 Maps, Mirrors, and Manipulation.......................................................85
Chapter 5 Point of View..................................................................................... 113
Chapter 6 Similes, Similarities, and Symbolism............................................... 149
Chapter 7 Pictorial Review................................................................................ 199
Chapter 8 Imaging, Immortality, and Imagination............................................ 217
Index....................................................................................................................... 251
Biography
Dr Michael R. Jackson is a Consultant Paediatric Radiologist, based at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, Edinburgh. He has a longstanding interest in the history of medicine and radiology, is Trustee of the British Society for the History of Radiology and Archivist to the Scottish Radiological Society. He is the Royal College of Radiologists / British Society for Paediatric Radiology Travelling Professor for 2021-22. Public engagement has included two sold-out talks at the Edinburgh International Science Festival in 2017 and 2018.
"Dr Michael Jackson the author of this interesting new book is a radiologist with an interest in art both classical and modern. In this new book he has set about exploring the relationships and unusual interfaces between modern diagnostic imaging and artworks from various eras. The exploration covers not just paintings but also the modern media such as cinema which today borrows from ideas emanating from modern imaging technology. A chapter on visual neurophysiology serves to remind us of the complexities of the perceptual process on which image appreciation and analysis all ultimately depend.
The breadth of western art has been fertile material for analysis. We are taken on a journey from historical cave paintings, Egyptian art, through to the development of perspective in art with examples from Durer in Germany through to the Renaissance painters well versed in anatomy who depicted the human body in astonishing detail in their painted dissected studies of the body which today can be reproduce from modern CT scanning technology. Examples of the anatomical drawings from Vesalius and other ecorche examples of religious iconography demonstrated the interfaces of anatomy and art with modern imaging…
Dr Jackson has used a vast range of illustrated source material from art, cartography, religious iconography, medical history, television, cinema and journalism and personal anecdotes to synthesise a smorgasbord of diverse subject areas into a very enjoyable and readable account of his thesis that the foundations of our modern image interpretation were laid by the works of artists, painters and scientists of yesteryear. All connected with medical imaging will find something of interest in this volume."
—Dr Arpan K Banerjee, Chair International Society for the History of Radiology (ISHRAD) for THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF RADIOLOGY
"Delve into its many well researched chapters and you will see that it is of great interest to both generalist readers and a more specialised medical imaging audience. In particular, it will be of fascination to those who have to interpret images and will help them understand how easy it is to be fooled by what they see. In Imagining Imaging, the author has crafted a masterful cornucopia of fascinating facts about the real, objective world within which the science of medical imaging firmly sits and the world of subjective visual art. But don’t be fooled, Dr Jackson cleverly draws unexpected parallels between these two, seemingly independent, worlds to demonstrate how they are indeed much more closely related than we might previously have imagined... the author goes throughout the book bombarding the reader with extremely well researched facts and figures about images, imaging and visual interpretations. Chapter two was a particular favourite, with fascinating facts about how our eye and brain really do reinterpret what is real. Other chapters take a more painterly turn and there is much to learn about how artists have approached their representations of the world, and again how this can be seen reflected in the way medical imaging specialists manipulate their images.
Each chapter is dense with information and should be read a bit at a time in order to appreciate all that Dr Jackson has to say. This book is a treasure for anyone interested in how we see the world and it has reinforced my long-held belief that medical imaging is as much an art as a science."
—Dr Leslie Robinson, diagnostic radiographer and artist, in RAD magazine (June 2022)
