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(A)e(s)th(et)ics of Brain Imaging. Visibilities and Sayabilities in Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

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Abstract

Producing and interpreting functional brain data is part of the negotiation we imagine our brain. To take a closer look at the idea of brain imaging as a form of visual knowledge, it is necessary to put the research of today into a historical context. In my article I will point to a specific approach of functional imaging which depends on historical shifts entangled with the visual aspect of producing pictures of the brain. I will bring out the interaction of issues like techniques, models and historical assumptions of the brain and link them with the way the brain images are presented. The aesthetic dimensions (Rancière) in the pictures are also questions of ethics and normativity.

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Notes

  1. www.ritacarter.co.uk

  2. man weiß nichts über seine Sinne bevor nicht Medien Modelle und Metaphern für sie bereitstellen. (Kittler [20])

  3. Original: “[…] eine der wundervollsten Erfindungen der Neuzeit, einer der interessantesten Fortschritte auf dem Gebiet der photographischen Wiedergabe des Lebens in all seiner Mannigfaltigkeit. Was kein Zeitalter vor uns gekonnt hat, das ist mit ihm möglich geworden: den Ablauf der Naturvorgänge, die Bewegungen alles Lebendigen und die Handlungen der Menschen in der Mitwelt objektiv getreu zu schildern und der Nachwelt zu stets möglicher Reproduktion zu überliefern.” Gaupp 1912: 1

  4. Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening televised from 1999 to 2003 in the American television.

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Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Anelis Kaiser and Judith Coffey for their detailed and insightful comments that helped to improve this article.

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  1. Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Hannah Fitsch

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  1. Hannah Fitsch
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Correspondence to Hannah Fitsch.

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Fitsch, H. (A)e(s)th(et)ics of Brain Imaging. Visibilities and Sayabilities in Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Neuroethics 5, 275–283 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-011-9139-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-011-9139-z

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