As part of "Convocation II", a gathering organized by the Language-based Artistic Research SIG of the Society of Artistic Research / SAR, this workshop introduced the Poetical Anamnesis / PA as a technique, developed by Barb Macek to investigate the existential dimension of autoimmune diseases.
It conceptualizes the autoimmune body as a modified and therefore poetic body. The symptoms of the disease are read as signs of an organism transforming into a poetical means of world modification. The aim of the PA is to capture these signs.
The crow is the agent poétique within the PA. It is a mythical messenger with the ability to wander between the worlds. In a hospital environment it is conspicuously misplaced – challenging the clinical environment, inviting transgressions.
How will the patient react to its presence?
