CT Scanning: Art x Engineering

The CT scanner revolutionised the medical world. 

For the first time, CT scans made it possible to produce accurate and detailed pictures of brain tissue. 

The technique, called computerised tomography (CT), constructed a picture from measurements made by an X-ray source and detector rotating around the patient. 

The EMI brain scanner was the first medical scanner to be adopted in substantial numbers.

CT scans can produce detailed images of many structures inside the body, including the internal organs, blood vessels and bones.

Seven years after winning the MacRobert award, the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to South African American physicist Allan M. Cormack and British electrical engineer Godfrey N. Hounsfield "for the development of computer assisted tomography”.

Today, the CT scanner is used in hospitals across the world and has proven to be one of the most important pieces of medical engineering in history.

Outside of medicine, CT scanning can also be used in geology, history, and cultural heritage, scanning fragile materials like scrolls, archaeological mummies, and historical outfits to learn about material composition without damaging the object.  

The artist created a ‘slice’ in a transparent skull model and inserted a set of serrated discs that overlapped and rotated around the skull to show the spinning motion of the original CT scanner.