2019
Racing Patience ICU at the Groundswell Conference on death and dying
Ashley, one of the attendees at a Groundswell Conference on Death and Dying responds to the experience of playing the card game, Racing Patience ICU and how that experience could relate to her work with marginalised people at the end of life.
Racing Patience ICU
This project Racing Patience ICU inhabits the transdisciplinary sites between science, technology and the arts. In this card game, the patient is comatose and has no agency, no ability to physically instruct the ICU team about their wishes. The characteristics of the end of life within an ICU are often driven by technology, and determined by what it is possible to attempt, not necessarily what is in the better interests of the patient. The process of dying is on occasion reported as excessively prolonged, painful and stressful for patients, families and medical staff. The ethics of the decisions made in this process can be questioned.
In this card game the competitive nature of the rules of engagement ensure that the focus is on doing whatever is possible to push the patient’s condition in the desired direction even if it is not legally, ethically or morally appropriate to do so. This can be seen to apply to both players as they make decisions about which card to play when and the impact that will have on the final result for the often disregarded patient.
Exhibition and Performance History
Holding Space - A MAPBM Kiosk 3 x 6 project, The Kiosk, Katoomba, Australia, 20 to 27 January 2018
Dr Karl goes West - Joan Sutherland Arts Centre, Penrith, Australia 15th August 2018
In Translation a SCA Curatorial Lab - Verge Gallery, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia 18th October -3rd November 2018
Cast a cold eye on life, on death: The Remake: Medicalised Death in ICU - SCA Gallery University of Sydney exhibition and second stage of the performative lecture from 10-18th May 2019
Groundswell Conference - Fairmont resort, Leura, Australia, 14th October 2019