Page 9: CT phantoms — recorporealising MRI

CT PHANTOMS

In another experiment using my phantoms as scientific devices, I collaborated with Dr Anush Kolakalur on their PhD research by making bone density phantoms specifically to test CT reconstruction algorithms he had developed. The opportunity to collaborate and co-create and create a phantoms for scientific research allowed me to briefly expand my phantom-making practice into another imaging modality (CT) which meant I could consider different kinds of material compositions using TMMs. I created bone-density phantoms using similar techniques developed for the MRI phantoms.

Their design was a question of matter and form resembling the spongy complexity of bone marrow rather than requiring that I create organs and systems within them. CT is used to measure bone density for diagnostic purposes. In 2020 and 2021 I had bone density scans to measure bone density loss resulting from treatment and to see if my cancer had spread. Dr Kolakalur had previously used bone sourced from a butcher but needed a model whose constituent materials could be isolated and scanned on their own.

Dr Kolakalurs doctoral thesis is called

NEW COMPUTATIONALLY
EFFICIENT ITERATIVE
RECONSTRUCTION (IR)
ALGORITHMS FOR COMPUTED
TOMOGRAPHY (CT) IMAGES

and can be found following this link.

These phantoms more closely resembled biological forms: their fleshy appearance was uncanny and they reminded me of samples from the dissecting room. The scans took place around the time of my cancer diagnosis and the tan-pink colouring and shape of these phantoms were similar to the description of my tumour described in my pathology report. This was incredibly confronting, almost as if I had created facsimiles of my tumour. The feminist tenant of the personal is political and the affective turn became wrapped up with my feelings towards my phantoms as devices and my growing medical-technological dependency.