Lesson notes:

Identifying and having a passport to the kingdom of sick/ well.

Metaphor + simile

IS A/ IS LIKE A

Illness as a metaphor

a social deviation

Relief/ guilt

Psychologically

Reinstating guilt

Choosing not to die if the disease

Zoe Buckman

Medical profession/ landscape

Deborah Robinson

Parasite

Malaria spreading

Jo Spence and Oreet Ashery

Misbehaving bodies

Marginalised people seeing treatment

Challenging the way we view health

How we relate to Illness and health

Felix Gonzalez-Torres

“Untitled” Placebo

Decreased body weight represented through talking sweets from installation

AIDS representation

Nan Goldin

all the beauty and the bloody shed

Addiction post surgery

OxyContin

Big medicine companies profiting from highly addictive medication. Giving funding to organisations to profit from addiction.
Activism to stop people accepting the funding through art

METAPHORS OF MEDICINE

“She’s a fighter!” and other metaphors in medicine, Carolyn Thomas

https://myheartsisters.org/2013/02/12/metaphors-in-medicine/

“battling”

“Beaten”

“fighting”

Types of metaphors categorised as:

“Parental (paternalistic) metaphor”

Often seen in a medical setting, when a situation may be considered dangerous. When faced with less desirable prognosis, people may default to a parental style response- care, consideration and sensitivity towards speech. In relation to medical staff, this can sometimes dictate the quantity or candidness of the information shared, also known as ‘softening the blow’/ ‘making the best of a bad situation.

“Engineering metaphor”

Objectifying sick people to simplify the health issue, making the treatment/ next steps seem methodical like an instruction manual. Health is a malfunctioning machine, therefore doctors are the engineers.

“War metaphor”

Villainising disease or illness by comparing it to extreme negative situations like war. The act of surviving/ living with it is often described as a major hardship, like a ‘fight’/ ‘battle’.

These attitudes to disease and sickness seem scared to confront reality. Dehumanising or over-exaggerated use of emotion seem to be coping mechanisms to adjust or avoid ‘awkward’ conversations.

Task: Book binding as a reflection of a passport to the kingdom of the sick.

Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor, 1978

Research and express areas of health
Through making a passport. Exploring health.
Good and BAD health
Create a book, use binding techniques.

Initial ideas.

Access to places
Self identity
Metaphor of stitch
Passport document of acceptance and personal justification

Creative process:

I’d describe my ‘passport’ as messy, rough, chaotic, difficult to explain and a little broken already. Relating to the kingdom of the sick as that description is easily interchangeable with my health, at this moment in time. I live with chronic pain, and felt a personal connection to aspects of “Illness as Metaphor”. “ it is hardly possible to take up one's residence in the kingdom of the ill unprejudiced by the lurid metaphors”. “This quote relates to people residing within this less than desirable kingdom.

Reading this text made me think in depth about my ongoing experience within the medical world, thinking back to all the medical metaphors I’ve heard and have said myself. One that comes to mind right now is “this pain is hell”, an unexplainable, shareable, burning, lonely, overwhelming feeling - the worst case scenario in many situations/ cultures and religions. When in reality it really is just a leg that hurts.

All of these points inspired me to make my passport reflect my personal journey of health, from a stance of recognition and acceptance. I began to think about how my journey to this kingdom began, suddenly, invisible. Carrying signed notes from medical professionals and teaching staff excusing from various activities to prevent debilitating pain. These notes built up throughout my time in secondary education, and were written in various levels of formality: typed, ‘scribbled’, printed and torn- all collecting in my little zip pocket of a barely worn blazer. Making my pain visible, paper as an advocate for care.

As time went on, I received multiple surgeries. My pain is documented by six small scars, all in a line, fading. These surgeries marked a turning point in my health, a step towards re-entering the kingdom of the well.

The notes and scars were my inspiration for this passport. I collected paper: coloured, lined, graph- cut and tore them apart. Aligning along a central fold, a like for like to the contents of the pocket on my school blazer. Next, I used a sharp tool to poke holes, planning the spacing and length to resemble my scars. I then threaded a needle with thick white thread. My stitches post surgery looked very unprofessional: big knots, long, tangled strings. So that's what I mimicked for the binding of the book. Stitches, a metaphor for stitches. This book is centred around my personal memories of medical intervention. A small gesture to represent the progress made towards recovery. The ongoing desire to re-enter the kingdom of the well.