When Salvatore Iaconesi was diagnosed with brain cancer, he put his medical records online to crowdsource a cure. It wasn’t just doctors he wanted to hear from, though: he also asked artists, designers, hackers, photographers, film-makers, musicians and writers to do their bit.
Read more: “Crowdsourcing a cure for my brain cancer”
In his response to Iaconesi’s search for a cure, graphic designer Alessandro Damin paid homage to a classic 1956 Olivetti advertisement. “Surely the interaction between all the minds of the world will find a way, a path, a cure, just like all those coloured arrows,” he wrote.
(Image: Alessandro Damin)
“Medicines that do the heart good,” wrote a contributor posting Valerio Loi’s photograph Human Feelings as Drugs. Loi explains: “The high street market offers a complete range of drugs that should help people recovering from a huge variety of illnesses and their symptoms… but what if those symptoms were only a lack of satisfaction on a spiritual level?”
(Image: Valerio Loi)
Artist Patrick Lichty used Iaconesi’s MRI data to make a 3D model of his brain tumour and posted it on the website Thingiverse – so now anyone with a 3D printer and an internet connection can reproduce it. Thanks to Lichty, Iaconesi’s tumour also exists in the virtual world Second Life.
(Image: Patrick Lichty/Thingiverse)
One of four images reminiscent of tangled brain neurons that Felice Gualtieri dedicated to Iaconesi.
(Image: Felice Gualtieri)
Artist Francesca Fini responded to Iaconesi’s call with Healing, a performance inspired by the magnetism involved in his brain scans.
(Image: Francesca Fini)
