Free Falling Neurons, Dendrites and Synapses ( From the artist's 'Medical Mocks' series)

Free Falling Neurons, Dendrites and Synapses, (from the artist’s ‘Medical Mocks’ series), creates an energetic, fantasized galaxy of an anatomic microcosmic inner world. It is a scientific impossibility since neurons, dendrites and synapses are connected, not disconnected from each other. This image is artificially constructed and composed in camera. Special effects and digital manipulation techniques are utilized in postproduction, enhancing the hyperrealism of the image. The subjects come to life, just as Gapetto’s favorite marionette, Pinocchio, masquerading seamlessly and taking center stage in her medical theater. Thus, deliberately woven together, mocking a real medical image–the experience asks the viewer to dissect what is real and the unreal. ‘Free Falling Nuerons, Dendrites and Synapses,’ also resembles something that could be astrological or even extraterrestrial. With further examination, the viewer is struck by the exaggerated and paradoxical imagery. Despite the eery, edgy veneer, the intention of this image (and all images in the series) is to provide perspective, humor and hope despite the fragility of life – part of the human condition. The mere fact that this fantasized medical image of an anatomical microcosm can enlarge to a larger than life, gallery sized photograph is also a parity of the technological advances in the digital world. To date, there is no medical camera which would produce a high definition, larger than life, gallery sized image of a macro or microcosm within the human body. The fictionalized “electro-microscopic camera” producing such imagery might allow scientists to achieve instantaneous detection of disease.