Sunday 1 May 2011

MRI scanner...and imaging


I have been interested in the science of movement for as long as I have been involved in dance!!! In 2003 I was involved with a pilot project looking at heart and nerve cell research material and trying to visualise this through dance and music....The work that resulted ' The journey within' was my response to that material..I would have loved to take the project on..we narrowly missed funding ...The project was called dance spark( from the spark of an idea that occurred when I sat down first to talk with the scientist Mark Evans and theatre manager Colin Veitch....how to create the Eureka effect in a theatre show about the body). The slides and small movies I watched then really inspired me....to watch what is happening inside the body...to try to understand the process of ....growth....chemical messengers.....etc...through these images was amazing. I wanted to have an interaction with dancers and the slides.                                                                       
I also went to a talk a few years ago about CT scans  by Mark Lithgow ..who has conducted many studies of scans and their resulting diagnosis........ and was fascinated by his work...he was looking into the variuos characteristics of artists and scientists...I feel I am somewhere between..  

I also have always loved the picture Norman McLaren made on an X ray of his head. I listened to him talk about it...he had had head pains and had the X ray to check him out...and kept the copy as he felt it was a kind of portarit...At one time I wanted to explore the brain and creativity within this masters project. I had a preliminary talk with a radiographer last year. She felt there was a whole world of possibility in this idea. How much could you tell about creative activity and the brain ....I know many studies have looked at for example... brain activity and meditation ( the Dalai Lama was involved in such a project three years ago) and brain activity in relation to musical activity . I would love to examine choreography and brain activity!!   


                                              
So it seemed a logical next step to make contact with Ninewells and to go and have another look at scanning.I set up a visit with Margot McBride who taeches radiology at Dundee University. I was given a guided tour of both scanning and CT facilities, and saw some 3D imaging work from a cardio echo scanning machine ( doubly interesting as I have recently been through this procedure as a patient both in Greece in November and in Perth ) Great  to have someone with teaching expertise take me through this material tho. In the end I may not use this idea...I will work on mcLaren's sketch tho and want to make one for my own brain!!                                                                                                                                                

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