Female Anatomy

This research addresses the visual conventions of the female interior and the normality and standardization of the body in medical education. It asks what kind of cultural and emotional values are projected to the female reproductive system. The work utilises drawing methods and video, and considers the rituals of becoming a doctor. The learnings are embedded in the interactive anatomy learning interface Bodytrace.

Researcher: Kaisu Koski

Funding: Academy of Finland, The Arts Promotion Centre Finland

This research addresses the visual conventions of the female interior and the normality and standardization of the body in medical education. It asks what kind of cultural and emotional values are projected to the female reproductive system. The work explores medical students’ hand-made drawings of the female reproductive system, employing the anatomical drawings created by 63 first-year medical students at Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry. It considers the drawings as part of a ritual of becoming a doctor, taboo-like topic related to sex, as well as self-portraits of the female students creating the images. 

Background research consisted of video recordings of medical students’ and teachers’ anatomical drawings at the University of Alberta. These lessons, including the female reproductive system, were embedded in the interactive anatomy learning interface Bodytrace.

Methods

Drawing here is considered a research method in collecting and disseminating data, as well as a typical method for teaching and learning anatomy. In this study, drawing is also a method for interrogating the data, asking how art and especially animation may inquire into and contribute to anatomy education (research).

As an equally important aspect of the methodology, this research develops modes of collaborative meaning-making. To stimulate polyphonic analysis of the drawings, Kaisu invited a physician and an art historian to interpret the medical students’ drawings.

Outcomes

The research illuminates these different viewpoints during the data interpretation, and discusses how they were founded on, and disrupted, their professional roles in various ways. It also discusses the function of associations and humour in these interpretations, and the experiences of emotional discomfort during the process.

Bodytrace: interactive anatomy learning interface

Learnings from the research are embedded in Bodytrace, an interactive anatomy learning interface.