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The Borderland of Living LAB is presenting results at NNMHR congress

Visualizing the invisible in neuro-critical care

Visualizing the invisible in neuro-critical care” is the contribution from the Borderlands of Living group, which Hanne Bess Boelsbjerg is presenting at the Nordic Network for Medical Humanities Research congress “Medical Humanities: In(Visibility)” on April 22nd .

Drawing on the extensive anthropological fieldwork done by the group in two highly specialized intensive care units the presentation will identify the practices used by health care professionals to trace ‘signs of consciousness’ in patients with severe acquired brain injury.

The presentation contributes to an exploration of how knowledge-making takes place, by illustrating how subtle sensations in the patient’s body, possibly responding to stimuli provided through touch, movement and audible prompts, is translated into transferrable knowledge. This is represented and negotiated through sensory metaphors articulated with the more formal registrations as recognizable expressions of consciousness. This leads to a discussion on how the assessment of consciousness engages a practice of visualizing the invisible through articulation and representation.

Registration for the congress, hosted by Durham Univeristy, is free. Please feel free to join!

https://nnmhr2021.org/

Borderlands of Living is funded by The Carlsberg Foundation.