Assignment #1
INTRODUCTION
Both images used in this study are sourced from Texture of the Nervous System of Man and the Vertebrates and are depictions of anatomical structures necessary for vision. We can assume that to create both of these illustrations, Ramón y Cajal used an ink pen as well as paper but not much else. I determined that the best way to replicate the methods Ramón y Cajal utilized to create his illustrations was with a black ink pen and paper.
In the first image of the avian retina, Ramón y Cajal wanted to establish that multiple different methods of cell staining lead to the same results (Ramón y Cajal, 1899, 60). This drawing was to show the legitimacy of Golgi’s Method that used silver nitrate, relative to the well-accepted Ehrlich-Bethe method which relied on methylene blue for staining. Despite their scientific rivalry, the method developed by Golgi was essential for Ramón y Cajal’s practice and by advocating for this method of staining, Ramón y Cajal also was championing his own work.
The second image that I studied has a different purpose that is primarily informative. Ramón y Cajal’s usage of arrows shows a theory of how information is transferred and works to inform scientists, whereas the first image may also have an underlying purpose of persuading the scientific community to gather support for Ramón y Cajal’s preferred method of neuronal staining. We cannot be sure of what staining method used in the second image especially when considering the many different types of tissue and cells included.
With our current technological capabilities, we would expect that these images increase in their clarity due to the removal of one level of transcribing. Today, we could utilize photographs to image what we see under the microscope and even though this method with inevitably contain bias, the image can be captured without the artist utilizing his own senses to perceive and draw what he believes the neurons lying underneath the microscope look like. However, silver chromate, considering that it was Ramón y Cajal’s preferred staining method and therefore may have been used in the second image, is still utilized to stain cells today, indicating that while methods of image capturing may have improved some of the techniques previously utilized, some methods that Ramón y Cajal have stood the test of time. Ramón y Cajal’s elaborate drawings of the nervous system are still displayed today ensuring their lasting validity and granting him a prominent role in the history of neuroscience and anatomical art.
FIELD NOTE 1 OF 3
Date: 2.13.2020
People Involved: Myself
Location: My kitchen table at my house in South Florida
Reconstruction conditions:
Late at night, the rest of my family was asleep and even my dogs were quiet. I listened to the entirety of Scheherezade composed by Rimsky-Korsakoff who was alive during the same time as Ramón y Cajal when they were both completing some of their most important works.
Time and duration of reconstruction:
1 hour: 11:30-12:30
Equipment and tools used:
White tissue paper, a black gel pen, and a paper copy
Subjective factors, e.g., how things smelled/looked/felt:
I had just finished a very stressful statistics homework and I was feeling anxious. Tracing the lines and especially the words helped to calm me down. I think I rushed the process because I wanted to try a new video game I had gotten, so in my future recreations I will make sure to make myself be more present and truly understand what each line and addition contributes to an overall image.
Prior knowledge that you have:
I took a cellular and molecular neuroscience class last semester which is what originally drew me to this selection out of all of Ramón y Cajal’s work. This image also stood out from the rest of the images that I saw in class which were mainly images of different types of neurons, especially the complex Purkinje cells that seem to go on forever. I liked that in this image you could tell what purpose these nerve cells served: to grant the bird visual capabilities. The cells were contextualized by their anatomical surroundings, rather than removed and studied individually as in some of Ramón y Cajal’s other works.
Reflection on your practice:
I actually had to re-start my tracing of the image because I was originally filming from the right side. I think I should have noticed this before I started filming because it practically blocked the view of what I was tracing. I discarded this image and started over, but what I found most important and what I started first with in both of my recordings was the caption underneath the image so I could understand the role the cells in the overall image and their function in the body.
While tracing, I found it difficult to keep the tissue paper from moving around and making sure that I was tracing the image in the right places. Something that I noticed while tracing was the homogeneity that was embellished with heterogeneity. The retinal cells were placed almost exactly the same distance from each other, yet each cell had a different pattern of innervation. Furthermore, the cells surrounding the retinal cells were all round with slight variations in size. This led me to think about these similarities with bodies, that most of us have two circular eyes, a heart, and a brain but despite these similarities we are able to differentiate ourselves due to slight variations that are mirrored on a cellular level.
While tracing the image, I kept thinking of the word arborization from the figure caption. Despite it being a proper neuroscientific term, I kept imagining that the nerve fibers innervating the retinal cells were like roots carrying necessary information to our body just as roots carry nutrients and water.
Photos/video documenting process:
Questions that arise:
Do the slight variations existing within the retinal cells cause them to interpret or carry information from their surroundings differently? Do they perform one main function that they carry out differently or are the effects of varying anatomy negligible? Variations in entire bodies cause us to act and perceive differently, so perhaps the functions of the very units that compose us may be impacted in the same way.
Are animals closer to plants than we believe? We seem to have more similar anatomical structure than we think, with our neurons branching in the same way that a tree’s roots and leaves might. Just because plants lack a brain, I do not think we can neglect the chance that other similarities might exist, especially if we all evolved from the same primordial soup.
FIELD NOTE 2 OF 3
Date: 2.14.2020
People Involved: Myself
Location: My brother’s room, kneeling on the floor (This is my favorite way to work)
Reconstruction conditions:
I looked up pieces of music that were written around the same time the Neuron Doctrine was presented and this included Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 and Dvorak’s Piano Concerto in G Minor which I listened to while I traced the images. I was waiting for my brother to come home from school who I have not seen in a few months, so I was excited to find such an immersive way to pass the time.
Time and duration of reconstruction:
1.5 hours: 10-11:30 PM
Equipment and tools used:
White tissue paper, 2 paper copies, a sharpie marker, a sharpie pen, a pencil, and an eraser
Subjective factors, e.g., how things smelled/looked/felt:
I started to get uncomfortable working in the position I was in, but it really makes me feel close to whatever I am working on. I find it really helpful to be able to position your entire body around as you are drawing on the paper. I was working in my brother’s room because the light in my bedroom has been broken for almost a year. I found tracing this image to be more interesting than the previous one which I think was because of the various different types of cells.
Prior knowledge that you have:
From my cellular and molecular neuroscience class, I know a lot about the different types of cells, but I found it very interesting to see how all of the details we learned about in the class were presented visually. For example, when I was drawing the synapse between two neurons, I noticed how Ramón y Cajal made sure to leave a gap between them, promoting his own theory of separated neurons. I also know that the flow of visual information starts at the back of the eye, goes to the front, and then reverses itself which Ramón y Cajal documents, although it is confusing to determine where he has indicated the beginning of the impulse. I do not know how modern scientists confirmed this theory, but it is remarkable that Ramón y Cajal was able to determine this with the limited scope of technology relative to today.
Reflection on your practice:
I noticed while I was sketching that I tend to move a lot. I began with tracing the entire image and tried to focus on drawing long, smooth lines which Ramón y Cajal does to show the continuance of the axons. I used a sharpie pen because I think it allowed for a similar texture and flow given by the fountain pens Ramón y Cajal might have used. After tracing the entire image, I was especially interested in the axons and the many ways they interacted in the superior colliculus, so I printed out a close-up on this part of the image and traced it once again. This time I used a sharpie marker because I knew it would have the bleeding effect of a fountain pen and allow me to create smoother lines than the pen. While tracing, I was struggling to see what lines I had already drew and which would be new lines representing the axons. I was thinking about how Ramón y Cajal was able to draw this without a reference to trace and how something this detailed could be accurate when I struggled myself just to copy it (Perhaps it was just my lack of artistic experience). I found myself retracing lines if they were not aesthetically pleasing and sometimes adding a flourish to the end of the dendrites to make them seem to dwindle off as I had observed in other literature. I see now that this may have compromised the integrity of the Ramón y Cajal’s work by including my own interpretation of his own interpretation, thus skewing the image of the product even further from how the cells existed in nature.
To see how drawing something without actually tracing it could impact my sketches, I decided to try to draw the image again with pencil. Although using a pencil was not historically accurate, I wanted to see how many times I would go back and try to erase an error I had made (which is not possible with other methods). By using a non-erasable instrument, I was making errors seem like fact when I wrote with the sharpie or pen. This led me to question if Ramón y Cajal made errors that maybe he just left, rather than having to scrap his entire image, just as I did.
Photos/video documenting process:
Questions that arise:
While I was tracing the individual lines of the axons in the superior colliculus, I was certain that I was making mistakes and probably drawing lines that were not there. It is not that I was not paying attention, but I think that as the paper I was tracing moved I accidentally added to the original image. I cannot imagine the difficulty that Ramón y Cajal must have had while he was attempting to draw something just from what he had seen. Tracing the cluster of nerve axons allowed me to truly understand the idea of objectivity in science. Even the thickness of the lines I drew would never truly represent the size of the actual nerve axons. If I pressed down slightly harder while tracing, it could change something incredibly important like the diameter of the axons and the size of the axons was already skewed due to their visualization under the microscope. Even when attempting to stay as true to source material as possible, I still added my own interpretation to the image I was tracing. I cannot help but think if any representation in science, especially the cells in our nervous system will suffice for seeing the true object in its natural state?
While copying this image, I also noticed that it lacked the stamp Ramón y Cajal placed on the first image that I traced. What caused him to brand some of his drawings, yet leave the others unmarked? Perhaps he did not find this suitable for study or did not consider it to be the higher quality of his other images?
FIELD NOTE 1 OF 3
Date: 2.15.2020
People Involved: Myself, my dad, and my dog Anubis
Location: My bedroom at my house in South Florida
Reconstruction conditions:
While constructing this image I listened to more Romantic music by composers who were influential at the same time as Ramón y Cajal, like Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.2, and Sibelius’s Finlandia. I rarely work without music and doing this assignment allowed me to utilize the influence of classical music which is often neglected in other works. Once again, I worked on the floor. I think I prefer this position because it allows me to get closer to the thing I am working on as I do this when I am studying for organic chemistry too.
Time and duration of reconstruction: 2 hours: 3-5 PM
Equipment and tools used:
white tissue paper, multiple paper copies of certain parts of the image, black fountain pen, black marker, grey marker
Subjective factors, e.g., how things smelled/looked/felt:
I was actually very annoyed while working on this image because my dad thought it would be funny if he held a dog treat over my head while I was tracing which I was oblivious to because of my headphones. I had to make two time-lapse videos because my dog knocked my iPad over. I was also irritated because the fountain pen’s ink kept going out and it was very difficult maintaining a smooth line. I think I spent at least ten minutes overall trying to get the fountain pen to function properly before I replaced the ink cartridge even though I had just purchased it.
Prior knowledge that you have:
I figured that most of our modern writing instruments were not available during Ramón y Cajal’s time, so I found one most similar to the one he probably used that was readily available: a fountain pen. I do not have any experience with fountain pens, but the instructions said to hold the pen at a 45-degree angle, still I encountered many problems with maintaining ink flow. I think Ramón y Cajal’s experience with art would have prevented him from experiencing the same issues that I faced, but if our modern technology is supposedly superior did, Ramón y Cajal encounter the same issues when drawing his depictions of the nervous system?
Reflection on your practice:
At first, I struggled to understand how to maintain the smooth lines with the fountain pen, but I think I adjusted rather quickly to the pen type. I found that this pen bled through the tissue paper and the paper underneath, so I frequently checked the tile underneath the image to make sure that no ink was going through.
I found that the fountain pen required more concentration than the other writing instruments I had previously used because it was the most sensitive to changes in pressure. I also found that the fountain pen was the most unforgiving of the pens I used, with errors being harder to cover compared to the thinner gel pen.
I also struggled to make the same changes Ramón y Cajal created when shading in his cells and in this regard, I utilized markers so that I could attempt to stay accurate with the colors in the image. I attempted to shade with the fountain pen in future drawings, but this failed altogether, and I wonder what Ramón y Cajal would be able to achieve with our modern art tools.
I also made some critical errors when tracing the first image and this could be because I was warming up or that the second image just interested me more. For example, I traced the close-up images of the cells on the reverse side of the paper even though I had already traced on the other side and I had even begun to trace the second set of cells completely upside down before I noticed and flipped it over. I think this caused me to pay more attention to the second set of images especially because they required more controlled use of the fountain pen with thinner lines and more complex branching of the axons and dendrites.
Photos/video documenting process:
Questions that arise:
I noticed that my emotions were impacting the way I was tracing the images. For example, I was very frustrated by my dad’s interruption and how frequently I had to restart ink flow in the pen. I think my lines became less smooth and I drew in shorter, fractured segments. I also made the first rip in my paper out of all of my previous drawings which can be seen in the lowercase “f” on the bottom left corner of the top sheet of tissue paper. This made me wonder if while transcribing the scientific images Ramón y Cajal observed, did his state of mind influence how he depicted the images? We often think that we can remove our emotions from ourselves as we work, but I think they still leak into everything we do. Even as I write this, 6 hours before it is due, I do not think I am being influenced by stress, but it is causing me to type and work at a faster pace than I usually do.
Doing this project has seriously caused me to question objectivity. While I considered it to be slightly influential in our previous class discussions, I thought it was something only necessary to pay attention to when images were being distorted because of a certain self-promoting goal in mind. Yet, I, myself had fallen victim to failing to remain subjective.
I do not think it is fair to place the body as separate from the environment, as during this process I was heavily influenced by my surroundings, whether constantly changing the way I was seated because of discomfort or letting the way I felt determine how I traced an image, our pasts and experiences will distort not just our scientific endeavors, but how we portray all or our ideas no matter how factual we believe them to be.
References
Ramón y Cajal, S. (1899) Texture of the Nervous System of Man and the Vertebrates Volume I. New York City, New York: Springer-Verlag Wien.