Pictures in the substantiation of organisation: a study of radiology
type: CreativeWork
description: The motivation for this study is an interest in technologically produced imagery and its effect on the contemporary world. Natural events, pictures, diagrams, paintings, spectacular performing arts, icons, etc, are persistent features in the repertoire of language for expressing and constituting knowledge. Much of present day common sense knowledge, however, is constituted through observation made in direct, yet technologically mediated ways. From television to computer graphics and radiographs, a plethora of technologies offer visual experience of a kind available only through techno-scientific means. Using technical instruments requires constructs created by user’s and see-er’s. Language that evolves, is often interpretable only through a unique cultural practice dependent on expertise. Technically produced imagery raises issues of individual and collective interpretation. The thesis method is eclectic to discern the complexity this involves. Intertwining of technical and scientific modes of professional conduct is examined through the implication of Galilean discovery, by way of the technical effects of glass in the 17th Century, and Roentgen’s accidental discovery through x-rays in the late 19th Century. Field work centers on issues pertinent to technologically mediated knowledge. This involved a small group of radiologists in the hospital of a provincial New Zealand city. Engaged variously in difficult radiographic interpretation, they are teaching newly qualified doctors entering the radiological profession to successfully “see” the imagery evoked by the radiograph. Medical practitioners, and especially radiologists, are a profession required specifically to develop skills of image and sign interpretation. Fundamental to their accountability is intersubjective agreement on what is “seen” on a radiograph and other technical equipment. The third dimension of “depth” has to be accurately imputed to a two dimensional radiograph. Radiological “objectivity” is the o…
abstract: The motivation for this study is an interest in technologically produced imagery and its effect on the contemporary world. Natural events, pictures, diagrams, paintings, spectacular performing arts, icons, etc, are persistent features in the repertoire of language for expressing and constituting knowledge. Much of present day common sense knowledge, however, is constituted through observation made in direct, yet technologically mediated ways. From television to computer graphics and radiographs, a plethora of technologies offer visual experience of a kind available only through techno-scientific means. Using technical instruments requires constructs created by user’s and see-er’s. Language that evolves, is often interpretable only through a unique cultural practice dependent on expertise. Technically produced imagery raises issues of individual and collective interpretation. The thesis method is eclectic to discern the complexity this involves. Intertwining of technical and scientific modes of professional conduct is examined through the implication of Galilean discovery, by way of the technical effects of glass in the 17th Century, and Roentgen’s accidental discovery through x-rays in the late 19th Century. Field work centers on issues pertinent to technologically mediated knowledge. This involved a small group of radiologists in the hospital of a provincial New Zealand city. Engaged variously in difficult radiographic interpretation, they are teaching newly qualified doctors entering the radiological profession to successfully “see” the imagery evoked by the radiograph. Medical practitioners, and especially radiologists, are a profession required specifically to develop skills of image and sign interpretation. Fundamental to their accountability is intersubjective agreement on what is “seen” on a radiograph and other technical equipment. The third dimension of “depth” has to be accurately imputed to a two dimensional radiograph. Radiological “objectivity” is the o…
author: McArthur, William
license: https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstreams/a94f734e-856a-43a3-a57d-bbd0890c96db/download
date published: 1992
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:57:49Z
provider: University Waikato
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The University of Waikato