Ignite 2024: Amy Jiao

So a question I get asked often is, What does a medical illustrator do? And this is how one famous medical illustrator puts it. We draw what can't be seen, watch what's never been done, and tell thousands about it without saying a word. Historically, medical illustration has evolved alongside the study of, you know, human health and medicine.

This pursuit of knowledge about ourselves, our lives, and deaths is what drove many medical illustrators of the past and present to this profession. Today, medical illustrators are people who use art to communicate science. But what does that have to do with all of you museum people? Well I'm new to this industry and I've been reflecting on what our commonalities might be.

And what I've figured out is that medical illustrators are impassioned storytellers. And I think some of you can relate. Do we think that's true? We help translate knowledge and facilitate understanding for our audiences. And I would say when I compare the work of a medical illustrator with the creative work of a museum technologist, the takeaway is advocate for the narrative.

What does that mean for me and my work? Well, let me illustrate it for you. Tonight, I'll walk you through, step by step, how I created this final illustration and give you a sense of what it would be like to be a medical illustrator. This editorial piece focuses on this research question. Is memory stored in binary?

This question comes from a theory that human memory is like computer memory. What that means is that molecular switches in our neurons or brain cells turn on and off just like bits of code. The visuals from this article are useful for scientists, but they don't help the public understand this idea at all.

So what do we do? Cue medical illustration. Advocating for the narrative starts at the beginning and asking, What is the idea we're trying to communicate here? We're trying to say a brain is like a computer, sort of. But there's nuances in that. Depicting the brain as a computer is not a new metaphor at all.

However, the way that we illustrate it affects the underlying message. Are we saying that the brain itself is the computer or is it your whole body is a neuron, like the microscopic version of a computer in this article? Actually, yes. So if a neurons are computer, how do we actually show that visually?

Neurons are organic, computers are mechanical. So how do we balance those visual representations in a way that doesn't cause confusion for our audience? Look at this example. What is it? A brain, right? Is it organic? Or is it mechanical? It's a little bit of both. But how did you still know it was a brain?

It was the shape, right? The folds and the ridges in it. Structural information told you that. So we know that organic structural realism is key info for our audience. Thusly, if we make our neuron structurally organic, then it can be visually mechanical. Now the fun part, we get to sketch out our idea. Of course, sometimes simple prototyping is the best.

So there's actually no limits to where you can find your artistic references, even if it's a thing you found in a drawer that helps you out. As we refine our draft, we try to reinforce our neuron computer metaphor. by recreating the structural parts of a neuron with the functionally equivalent parts of a computer, which some of you probably know about.

And now here's the second draft coming up. As you can see, we're rendering this illustration in 3D in order to help make an abstract subject feel more tangible and more plausible for our audience. As for the finishing touches, I have one tip of the trade. If you add dust floaters to a microscopic environment, it makes the environment feel more tangible for the viewer because it mimics the shallow depth of field that you see in macro photography.

So that helps you out. And that's the final illustration done. Together, we worked on forming a coherent and audience driven narrative, which is always a medical illustrator's top priority. In my work now for museums, it's still very much the same. I hope you enjoyed becoming medical illustrators with me today.

And learning about what I love to do as you go forward to tackle creative challenges and tell your own stories at your own organizations. Here's my second takeaway. Look for inspiration in unlikely places. If you're currently considering an unconventional new partnership, a new client or a new hire, let this be your sign to go for it.

They'll be grateful. I know I am. Thank you.