ietzenmaschine

“Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.”

(Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor, New York, 1977, foreword p.3.)

–> We are all affected/concerned —-> hence the interest in series on medical practices

Visit Gunther von Hagens’ unique Plastinarium and find out how you can donate your own body.

“the juxtaposed couple” on display at the Plastinarium in Guben, Germany

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“Witness how the perishable bodies of humans and animals are preserved for posterity and aesthetically formed through the unique method of plastination, so that you may experience the beauty and fragility of our existence. Nearly 25 million people worldwide have been fascinated by the reality of the specimens in the BODY WORLDS exhibitions. Come and take a look behind the scenes!”

(http://www.plastinarium.de/en/plastinarium_e/plastinarium_what_is_it.html)

–> People are generelly pretty curious. TV plays on that in that it gives the viewer what he/she wants: It grants an insight into people’s realtionships with each other, it allows to see through the fassades people put up. In the particular case of TV series on forensics or medical practices people even get to see what they normally couldn’t see: the inside of their own physical body.

In the anatomy theaters the body was not only demonstrated but also performed; it became transformed into a universalized sign reflecting back upon each viewer as the uncanny unveiling of their own insides, of a universal, humansistic , corporeal condition.”

(Eugene Thacker, digital anatomy and the hyper-texted body, p. 2)

What does watching a body being dissected or operated on most possibly cause in the viewer:

• disgust
• nausea even
• critique (in that he/she thinks this shouldn’t be presented on TV, unless maybe in the context of a documentary…)
• fascination
• satisfied voyeuristic needs

THE SECRET

• Grey’s Anatomy

“As doctors we know everybody’s secrets, their medical histories, sexual histories, confidential information. We keep secrets. We have to. But not all secrets can be kept.”

(Character Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh)

• CSI MIAMI

conversation between Lt. Horatio Caine (David Caruso) and Eric “Delko“ Delektorsky (Adam Rodriguez) on the scene of a potential crime (A man just died in the arms of Eric Delektorsky who for his part is devastated for a minute because he couldn’t save that man’s life…):

ED (excited and disappointed at the same time):

He could have told us something!

HC (in a calming all knowing tone):

We don’t need him to. We’ve got the whole story right here. (He scans the site with his thorough gaze…)

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WHAT HAPPENS TO THE BODY?

He turns into:

• a ‘raconteur passif’,
• a means of evidence,
• a human container that is inscribed with traces of the soul/body that it is filled with.

BODY WITHOUT ORGANS:

I take it as:

• a state of being,
• a critical approach,
• perception, potential, becoming,
• constant flux,
• an experiment rather than an interpretation and a set of practices (Deleuze, Guattari).