Why I Captured This MRI of a Mother and Child
smithsonianmag.com
smithsonianmag.com
> This particular MR image, though, was not made for diagnostic purposes, nor even really for science. No one, to my knowledge, had ever made an MR image of a mother and child. We made this one because we wanted to see it.
> To some people, this image was a disturbing reminder of the fragility of human beings. Others were drawn to the way that the two figures, with their clothes and hair and faces invisible, became universal, and could be any human mother and child, at any time or place in history. Still others were simply captivated by how the baby’s brain is different from his mother’s; it’s smaller, smoother and darker—literally, because there’s less white matter.
The same scanner could take functional BOLD measurements, of course.
The question I was wondering about is "how did she get two million dollars to buy a 3-tesla MRI machine". And the answer is, be a professor at MIT. (http://saxelab.mit.edu/)
Edit: downvoters have clearly never worked in a university research environment.
It's junk art. Another madonna. Big deal. The image of mother and child has been done to death in every medium. Doing it again in a new one isn't saying much. The author picked a subject to trigger a boringly predictable emotional response. It is as much art as the latest kittens meet puppies youtube sensation.
Leave the art to actual artists. If you want your medical machine to create art, allocate some time for artists. Treat it like every other mother treats a sonogram. Put in on the mantle, not the internet. Don't waste time/money/helium on hack projects in an attempt to generate news.
Leave the art to actual artists.
Leave costly and expensive art to the good artists. Get a paints set. Buy a camera. Leave the million-dollar paintbrushes to those non-novice artists able to create something interesting.
And here, in a cave, about 2 million years ago, the first artist was born. And, of course, with the birth of the artist, came the inevitable after birth... The critic.
Lest I get down voted for bringing humor to a comment on Hacker News, I will make the further point. Are your comments meant to be art criticism? Ok. They should be judged as art criticism. You say it's "another madonna" as if all madonna's are junk art. Many of the madonna's are the most studied religious iconography and artistic masterpieces of all time. Almost all of the most renowned artists in history have completed a madonna. Who is to say it has been done to death in every medium? Are you attempting to say that no artist can come along and make a new masterpiece madonna? And frankly, you'll have to argue much harder to make people believe that the madonna has been done to death in every medium, particularly MR images.
As for your argument that million-dollar paintbrushes should be left to non-novice artists to create something interesting. We create art with what we have on hand. This person happens to have a 3 tesla MRI machine. Why shouldn't they use it? If another artist would like to come along and use it, they can work with the university that holds it to use it. What a horrible argument to say that because they are a novice they should not be allowed to use such a beautiful tool for their own artistic enjoyment.