When I saw this come into my inbox, I thought 'uh oh, proceed with caution'.
I spent more than 13 years in a History of Medicine collection that Jack knows very well - Wellcome Collection. I was a Product Manager working on their digitised collections, search, etc. When I saw the image for Wellcome's wound man (last image in the post), I of course had to click through to see it on 'my' product, again. And the link is broken! It's not you, Anne-Helen, it's that bloody API acting up again! Reference numbers have clearly gone awry.
For those who want to dig into more of Wellcome's various Wound Men, here are two for your delectation:
Maybe this is in the book, but I'm really curious about how Wound Man relates to allllll the bloody gory images of Jesus crucified from that same time period (and before). The stab wounds in the torso are like a 1:1 of Jesus getting stabbed by a Roman while on the cross. I'm really curious about how these images are used to document all of the torture Jesus went through while also showing Jesus resurrected - essentially a triumph over death that forces the viewer to acknowledge the pain and suffering he went through. How does that iconography, which would be so so so familiar to common people at these times, relate to these medical images, which maybe aren't as familiar?
Getting to read an analysis of Bama Rush one week and then an interview about medieval Wound Men the next is 1000% why I adore this newsletter -- so just thank you for all you do!!
So interesting! This made me think about how we may incorporate new technology like generative AI in medical image generation. It is surprisingly limited and inaccurate when you review carefully, though at first glance it may look great. One of my colleagues recently published an academic article about this (https://www.annemergmed.com/article/S0196-0644(24)00413-X/fulltext). Reading about wound man and considering who draws and uses medical images gives me more respect for how important images are in medicine and our understanding of the body. It also highlights some of the profound differences between what AI can do and what it can’t (the human experience). On the other hand, my experience is that modern medical illustrators are rarely clinicians. I’d be curious to see how they learn and iterate to develop what we consider “good” images. The structures and labels vary widely depending on the purpose of a drawing or image. I wonder how much AI can improve in the future or if it just is not a good application for a non-embodied text-based computer.
Not realizing earlier how awesome it would be to be a medievalist is on my list of regrets. This is awesome. I work on the history of forensics and visual evidence, from a U.S. perspective, and the idea of surgeons assessing damages is fascinating!
Did not know I was interested in Wound Man until today. What a fascinating interview! Now I wonder if there are non-Western versions of Wound Man -- there must be! -- and when they were first created and how they are similar to or different from Euro Wound Man.
This has me spinning in all kinds of interesting directions. If there is an MCU of medical men, we know that other medical traditions have parallels (like diagrams of chakras, for example, so sounds are sounds everywhere— but how much of Wound Man was based on the man-money and legal ramifications of treatment (and the sanctity of the body mayhem of early Christianity too boot) , in which case he may be culturally specific in some ways, too? So interesting!
This is not the first time a CS interview has made me decide to buy a book as a gift for someone even if I’m not exactly sure who the someone is yet. There HAS to be a person in my life for whom this is an 11/10 perfect find.
When I saw this come into my inbox, I thought 'uh oh, proceed with caution'.
I spent more than 13 years in a History of Medicine collection that Jack knows very well - Wellcome Collection. I was a Product Manager working on their digitised collections, search, etc. When I saw the image for Wellcome's wound man (last image in the post), I of course had to click through to see it on 'my' product, again. And the link is broken! It's not you, Anne-Helen, it's that bloody API acting up again! Reference numbers have clearly gone awry.
For those who want to dig into more of Wellcome's various Wound Men, here are two for your delectation:
WMS.290 - https://wellcomecollection.org/works/tp6fppqz/images?id=s35fgzpt
MS.49 (AKA Wellcome Apocalypse) - https://wellcomecollection.org/works/du9ua6nd/items?canvas=73
And if you really want to see centuries-old manuscripts depicting people being poked with things, Wellcome Collection is your place.
I love this connection very much and am grateful for the links!!
~ Wound Man, come together with your glands ~
Maybe this is in the book, but I'm really curious about how Wound Man relates to allllll the bloody gory images of Jesus crucified from that same time period (and before). The stab wounds in the torso are like a 1:1 of Jesus getting stabbed by a Roman while on the cross. I'm really curious about how these images are used to document all of the torture Jesus went through while also showing Jesus resurrected - essentially a triumph over death that forces the viewer to acknowledge the pain and suffering he went through. How does that iconography, which would be so so so familiar to common people at these times, relate to these medical images, which maybe aren't as familiar?
Getting to read an analysis of Bama Rush one week and then an interview about medieval Wound Men the next is 1000% why I adore this newsletter -- so just thank you for all you do!!
So interesting! This made me think about how we may incorporate new technology like generative AI in medical image generation. It is surprisingly limited and inaccurate when you review carefully, though at first glance it may look great. One of my colleagues recently published an academic article about this (https://www.annemergmed.com/article/S0196-0644(24)00413-X/fulltext). Reading about wound man and considering who draws and uses medical images gives me more respect for how important images are in medicine and our understanding of the body. It also highlights some of the profound differences between what AI can do and what it can’t (the human experience). On the other hand, my experience is that modern medical illustrators are rarely clinicians. I’d be curious to see how they learn and iterate to develop what we consider “good” images. The structures and labels vary widely depending on the purpose of a drawing or image. I wonder how much AI can improve in the future or if it just is not a good application for a non-embodied text-based computer.
Not realizing earlier how awesome it would be to be a medievalist is on my list of regrets. This is awesome. I work on the history of forensics and visual evidence, from a U.S. perspective, and the idea of surgeons assessing damages is fascinating!
Do you know that Wound Man is crucial to how Hannibal Lecter gets caught in the book version of Silence of the Lambs?
!!!!!!!
As a librarian, I am here for deep explorations of the research process and interviews that casually use the word "metadata."
More interviews like this! I am obsessed! This was so interesting to read and I can't wait to get my hands on the book itself. Thanks for this!
Did not know I was interested in Wound Man until today. What a fascinating interview! Now I wonder if there are non-Western versions of Wound Man -- there must be! -- and when they were first created and how they are similar to or different from Euro Wound Man.
This has me spinning in all kinds of interesting directions. If there is an MCU of medical men, we know that other medical traditions have parallels (like diagrams of chakras, for example, so sounds are sounds everywhere— but how much of Wound Man was based on the man-money and legal ramifications of treatment (and the sanctity of the body mayhem of early Christianity too boot) , in which case he may be culturally specific in some ways, too? So interesting!
This is not the first time a CS interview has made me decide to buy a book as a gift for someone even if I’m not exactly sure who the someone is yet. There HAS to be a person in my life for whom this is an 11/10 perfect find.
This wonderful piece left me wondering: Are there any depiction of the Wound Man’s back?
Thanks so much for your newsletter, AHP, I feel like I learn so much, such a positive feeling in *this*
Sara YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK, there's so much good Medieval Geekery!