• Home
• Magazine
• Blog & Podcast
• Idealog TV
• Directory
• Celsias

• Business Magazine of the Year MPA Awards 2007, 2008 & 2009 Business Website of the Year MPA Awards 2009

Skin deep

Kiwi icons under the X-ray

A Christchurch X-ray lab recently had a new subject: a kiwi that strutted happily under the scanner for a few minutes. The result isn’t intended for a conscientious vet, but for walls, as the X-ray is converted to canvas and becomes art.

A parade of Kiwi flora and fauna has made its way through scanners at the Christchurch lab, including silver ferns, crayfish, tuatara and pohutukawa. “The idea is to use this technology with New Zealand icons,” says Sion Walker of Iconix Art, a company formed by three Christchurch surgeons.

The trick is to get the dose right. A strong exposure will capture a skeleton in motion; a lighter dose will include the texture of feathers, scales, flowers and leaves. “It’s more akin to taking a nice photograph rather than just pressing a button,” says Walker.

But Iconix has also found a way to transfer the high-res images onto canvas, he says. “Our proprietary technology is the conversion to a usable JPEG for printing.” The scans hold enough resolution that the images can be blown up as large as A0 size—that’s eight times the size of a sheet of A3—without losing detail. A canvas typically retails for around $1,000, Walker says. It’s a small piece of Aotearoa on a dramatic—and patriotic—scale.

Add your comment

HTML will be removed. Web addresses will be automatically hyperlinked.

Anonymous comments are queued before publishing and may take some time to appear. Or you can create an account and your comment will bypass our bureaucracy.

Your comment Name Email (hidden) Website Security check

Tweeted

Overheard

• Mark on Bigger, faster, more productive:
  Fantastic! Finally some vision in establishing a key infrastructure to support New Zealand's future prosperity and commercial competitiveness. Good work Rod, Sam and Steve - your country thanks you for your patriotism!  …
• Margaret Holmes on NZ Institute thumbs down Key's agenda:
  Unfortunately it is not just red tape - it is also the laid back kiwi attitude, compounded by educators who think achieving national standards is a bad thing.
• Tim Marshall on Smile, you’re in New Zealistan:
  The target of higher GDP per capita is all wrong. Aiming for it encourages more production and consumption, often at the expense of quality of life. We need to construct a Genuine Progress Index (GPI) to guide policy. Fr  …
• Peter McL on New note:
  "You got caught up in events at EMI.." and yet shes STILL with EMI - their local branch is distributing her new album. Wonder why?
  
  I blogged some more of Hollies comments on the details behind the fallout  …
• Phil Wollerman on Smile, you’re in New Zealistan:
  Brilliant, insightful article, VH.
  
  This situation has principally arisen because - simplistically - the world no longer wants what we are intrinsically advantaged in supplying.
  
  And yeah, it doesn't look like our co  …
• Anon on Smile, you’re in New Zealistan:
  The answer lies in a) increasing the returns to capital and b) decreasing the cost of capital. To do a) we need to reduce corporate and income taxes and replace them with land, resource, pollution and infrastructure char  …

• Back to top
• Looking for something else? Check the site map
• © 2005–2010 Idealog. All rights reserved. ISSN 1179–3465