the hospital is ill

Phoebe Eustance

Responding to Jean Oury's provocation 'the hospital is ill', this practice-led research aims to open up a critical dialogue around embodied experiences of disciplined spaces, with an emphasis on locked psychiatric clinics, institutional processes and their repetitive rhythms. Drawing from Oury’s concept of ‘pathoplasty’ and queer theory, which questions norms and rejects thinking in binaries, the project reimagines the institution as malleable.

The clinical encounter, for patients detained in NHS mental health services, revolves not only around the doctor and patient dynamic but encompasses multi-sensorial dimensions in what can be described as the lifeworld of the patient. The involuntary nature of detainment exacerbates aspects of this lifeworld with imposed restrictions that aren’t only physical but also procedural and relational.