We hear the patient before we see them. Beatrix De Costa is performing. There is purpose and poise. It is not clear if the patient is leading or being led.The split screen tells us we shall be exploring options and experiences, as well as spaces and how to navigate them.The screens fill with containers of knowledge, concrete ones, plastic ones. Hands, arms, bodies, controlling substances in controlled environments. The coordinated effort of Hope.Three screens. Three choices. Look directly at what is affecting you. Look at something different. Look away entirely.As we travel deeper into this patient journey, some decisions are taken for us and choices are taken away from us.Time is counted down. Three fingers are splayed on the floor. Two fingers are held up for counting. One mouse is being prepared for death.The patient decided what they wanted to confront, which patient takes centre stage, troubling the narrative of who is dying and who is other.The triptych is culled, panel by panel. And so is the mouse. There is only one panel. There is only one voice.
Reflections on Beatrix Da Costa (2011) Dying for the Other 1This opening commentary describes a film by artist, activist, and academic Beatrix da Costa, who died in 2012 after 'negotiating with cancer for many years' (Kelley 2017, p. 230). Her work, Dying for the Other, with its multiple screens projecting patient perspectives, clinician interventions and animal experiences, makes strikingly visible the companion species and questions of relation that connect 'suffering, remedy, and harm' (Kelley 2017, p. 233) in health care and research. Patients'