How does a painting look like on X-ray?

The impulse to develop medical imaging comes mainly from two sources: understanding/diagnosing diseases and understanding our body. However, medical imaging technology is sometimes used to study different objects. This post is dedicated to the imaging of one type of these objects: paintings.

• Why is that? Because with medical imaging we can study the paintings without destroying them. For e.g. it is possible to know which materials were used without taking any sample out.
• Which technology is used? To study paintings, X-ray technology is mostly used. Infrared technology can also be used, but this is not a typical medical imaging technology. (By the way, MRI is not a good medical technology to study paintings, because the paints have basically no water content.) The most important step to use these technologies was that they become mobile.
• What else can be seen? Painters have their creative process when painting and it is often possible to understand the previous steps. It is also possible to understand the "mistakes" that the painter made before the final version. These images can even help in the restoration of a painting.
• What are the differences from imaging a person? Well, the thing here is that dose is not so important, as well as patient movement or "patient impatience" due to long acquisitions.

There are many examples of paintings that were studied with medical imaging. One example of such study was made with the "Sunflowers" from Van Gogh, which can be read here. Mona Lisa has also been scanned and some of Picasso's paintings also, such as "The Old Guitarist" and "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon".

Recognize this painting?



More information can be found here and there:
Schreiner, M., Frühmann, B., Jembrih-Simbürger, D., & Linke, R. (2012). X-rays in art and archaeology: An overview Powder Diffraction, 19 (01), 3-11 DOI: 10.1154/1.1649963

Dissecting Art, Intersecting Anatomy - Medical illustration

Pauline Lariviere was an artist whose main contributions were made to the field of medical illustration. As a scientist in the medical field, medical illustrations are essential to education. I have already spent some hours drawing something in the computer for a paper or presentation. In old times, all illustrations were done by hand, but nowadays computers play an important role and medical images are often used as a basis to medical illustrations. Here is an example of a medical illustration based on a CT scan:


The video is about an exhibition which pays a tribute to Pauline Lariviere.

Dissecting Art; Intersecting Anatomy from Phillip Schalekamp on Vimeo.

More about the history of medical illustration and the role of computers can be read in:
Tsafrir, J., & Ohry, A. (2001). Medical illustration: from caves to cyberspace‡ Health Information & Libraries Journal, 18 (2), 99-109 DOI: 10.1046/j.1471-1842.2001.d01-16.x
Corl, F., Garland, M., & Fishman, E. (2000). Role of Computer Technology in Medical Illustration American Journal of Roentgenology, 175 (6), 1519-1524 DOI: 10.2214/ajr.175.6.1751519

More art inspired by Medical imaging

Marilene Oliver is another artist who is inspired by medical images. She creates sculptures and installations based on medical images. The full portfolio can be seen here. I show in this post some images of her most interesting work:

Sculptures inspired by medical imaging

Cao Hiu is a Chinese artist, who took the art of sculptures to the next level. The outside of the sculpture looks like ancient Greek sculptures, but the inside looks just like the inside of a body. He used MRI references to build the interior of the sculpture. Not only these sculptures look interesting and accurate, they can also be quite educational...



More images can be found here.

X-rays are art!

And the best sentence ever said about X-rays goes to Nick Versay: "What I want X-ray to do is to excite people and to make them appreciate the world that's around them in a new way."



See more pics in http://www.nickveasey.com/ (click on projects) and follow him in facebook http://www.facebook.com/nickveaseyxray.

To see more about the process, see the video:


I do hope he is being careful about radiation, he should totally use a dosimeter... 

Sivu MRI video

A new MRI video has been going around in the internet. Sivu, an english singer, made his latest video clip inside the MRI machine while performing. MRI images were acquired in a hospital in London.  Impressive images were created while he sings:


Sivu - Better Man Than He. from Adam Powell on Vimeo.

The idea for the music video came from CLEFT and Barts and the London Charity, two charities working on treatments for cleft lips and palates in children.