Between Agony and Ecstasy: Investigations into the Meaning of Pain

Barbara Macek

About this exposition

Pains are moving, alluring us to world-making-activities, attuning our bodies with other bodies and therefore putting us in relation to others. Pains cut into our net of habits, and even the slightest pain causes a transformation. Pains are crushing, deeply distressing, showing us our limitations – but also our capability to go beyond our limits, to outgrow ourselves. In the course of my literary research for this project I generated 10 PAIN CATEGORIES that I derived from poems, philosophical and literary texts on pain, and my own experiences. These poetical/pictorial categories differ profoundly from pain categories as they are to be found in common pain questionnaires: They refer to the existential dimension of pain and do not differentiate between physical and mental pain in order to overcome the myth of this dichotomy. The next step of my project consisted in going into the field to look at, imagine and feel into pain. I conducted methodical observations in the casualty departments of two Viennese hospitals and developed my own method of "self-reflective observation in the mode of seeing/feeling". The assemblages as part of this exposition present the results of these investigations and reconstruct different perspectives on PAIN as an EXISTENTIAL PHENOMENON.

type	research exposition
keywords	Pain, visual art, poetry, literature, poetics, Observation, psychology, research-creation, medicine
date	28/09/2018
published	28/09/2018
last modified	28/09/2018
status	published
affiliation	Department of Art & Science, University of Applied Arts Vienna
license	All rights reserved
url	https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/308804/470238
doi	https://doi.org/10.22501/jar.308804
published in	Journal for Artistic Research
portal issue	16. 16
external link	http://www.transpoetry.net

name	SWEET & JOYFUL PAIN
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Space-Time Pain
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Cutting Pain
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	TIME PAIN I
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	SPACE PAIN III
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Pain Animal I
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Animal Pain VII
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture, picture, picture

name	TIME PAIN IX
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	McGil Pain Questionnaire
copyright	McGil Pain Questionnaire
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	WILD DARK PAIN II
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Existential Pain III
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	TIME PAIN II
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	darkpain2
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Wild Pain, Dark Pain, Image Plate 4
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture, picture

name	Pain Beyond Words, Image Plate 1b
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Existential Pain, Image Plate 2
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture, picture

name	KNOWING PAIN IV
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture, picture

name	Cut up A
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Cut up B
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Cut up C
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	cuttingpain_poster_barbaramacek
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	phantompain_II
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	spacepain_I
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	TIME PAIN
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	EXISTENTIAL PAIN III
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	painbeyondwords_I
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	EXISTENTIAL PAIN IV
copyright	Barbara Macek
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

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Between Agony and Ecstasy: Investigations into the Meaning of Pain (2018)

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