Anatomical theater in the context of digital technologies

Abstract

Against the background of the development and widespread use of digital technologies, such research and educational practices as anatomical theater have undergone significant changes. These changes, as an urgent scientific problem, need to be understood in the interdisciplinary discourse, which is formed at the intersection of culturology, medical engineering and philosophy of technology. The purpose of this study is to analyze the transformations of anatomical theater under the influence of new technologies, in particular, digital. Analysis of the history of the origin and functioning of anatomical theater as a phenomenon of European culture shows that for a long time it met the demands of society to study the human body as a biological object − its composition, structure. This demand was formed under the influence of the cultural paradigm of the Enlightenment with the growing authority of science, including scientific science. The theatrical nature of public autopsies allowed to popularize the scientific achievements of anatomy and medicine in the most accessible and mass (at that time) form. At the same time, the audience received not only knowledge, but also the spectacle and reputation of a modern, educated man. When the mysteries of the anatomy of the human body were almost gone, interest in anatomical theater as a public research event disappeared. New ways to satisfy this curiosity have emerged, from printed illustrated medical atlases to virtual computer dissections that are available to any user of digital gadgets. Anatomical theater as a scientific, cultural and social phenomenon has not disappeared. It still remains a part of mass culture, but acquires new forms of actualization − with changing goals and meanings − in a new technocultural context, within the new paradigms of the digital age.