ModVic Creates a Steampunk X-Ray Voyager Sculpture Inspired by Advanced Radiology Technology Used to Target and Eradicate Cancerous Tumors
Client : Doctor Eugene Tikh, Interventionalist Radiologist
Location : Newton, MA
Description : 2ft. wide X 5ft. high X 2ft. deep: 75lb. sculpture
Materials : Antique x-ray tubes, historical medical devises, plasma lighting, Victorian-era staircase newel post, and other salvaged items
Timeline : 4 months to design, engineer, and fabricate
Location : Newton, MA
Description : 2ft. wide X 5ft. high X 2ft. deep: 75lb. sculpture
Materials : Antique x-ray tubes, historical medical devises, plasma lighting, Victorian-era staircase newel post, and other salvaged items
Timeline : 4 months to design, engineer, and fabricate
Challenge: How to create a work of art that will help inspire a successful radiologist to invent new scientific techniques in the ongoing fight to cure cancer?
Solution: Design a unique sculpture for his home that celebrates his own invention and draws comparisons to the classic 1960s science fiction tale “Fantastic Voyage”
Art Imitates Life, which Imitates Art: Using tiny microbeads that can be injected into the body, Dr. Tikh has developed a radiology technique that allows healthcare professionals to identify the precise location of a mass of tumor cells.
Movie poster image courtesy of Hubbs Movie Reviews: phub.blogspot.com
The microbeads then travel to the exact center of a tumor where they detonate, like a “smart bomb”, and destroy only the cancerous cells, while leaving healthy tissue cells around the tumor “safe” and intact.
The way this new technology works reminded Bruce Rosenbaum of the plot line for the classic 1966 Cinemascope Picture titled “Fantastic Voyage” in which a scientific crew and a submarine-like ship are miniaturized and then injected into the human body on a mission to locate and “kill” the disease that is ailing a medical patient.
Rosenbaum ran with the idea and began assembling a model ship of the Steampunk X-Ray Voyager – an exploratory vessel that shrinks to microscopic size and travels inside the human body, locating and destroying dangerous tumors.