the art of medicine

Where to Draw the Line - Patrick Altes

Hidden Genesis - Patrick Altes

Art has long been acknowledged to give doctors a fresh perspective as well as benefiting their patients, and the walls of BSMS are covered with x-rayed vegetables, flower-like teeth and views from under the floorboards. Students are given the opportunity to take photography lessons and contribute to art projects, as well as learning interdisciplinary subjects like medical ethics and history.

Learning To Look, for example, is a third year option, devised by Brighton Photo Biennial and funded by the Creativity Development Fund, that aims to develop visual awareness and critical thinking through photography-based activities. The photographs produced by students as a result of this creative elective will be exhibited at the University of Brighton from 14-27 April along with a specially commissioned film about the BSMS students’ learning experiences. (For more details email Juliette Buss, the Education Consultant at Brighton Photo Biennial, j.buss@brighton.ac.uk.)

Professor Helen Smith says: ‘We are very committed to developing a curriculum that will enable our students to study the arts and humanities in addition to core biomedical sciences and clinical medicine. We believe that these broader studies will contribute to
their development as good doctors, with a deeper understanding of the meaning of illness, who are able to communicate better with patients and family and able to reflect on the impact of their work with sick people.’

This year visual artist Patrick Altes is undertaking a ten-month residency at BSMS and the oncology department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, supported by the Leverhulme Trust. He is exploring the role of the oncologist in the healing process of cancer.

He will observe cancer-related lessons;
attend the fourth-years' elective presentations on their experiences of other health care systems; and talk to students and doctors about their roles as healers to gain a good understanding of their journey by the time they are attached to oncology. So far he has shadowed doctors, attended lectures, explored the hospital and started a diary of his experiences.

Building up a picture of the hospital community has enabled him to start work on his art.

'I find this project challenging and exciting. I want to explore the complexity of doctors' roles as healers, and what it implies for them mentally.

'Medicine is closely linked to our primal need for survival and we relate to doctors in a complex way; when exposed to this emotionally charged disease, we see them as healers, rather than just vehicles for science doling out treatment to put us back on track.

'I'm interested in how modern scientific medicine, in a technical and complex department like Oncology, is dealing with the different aspects of health and disease in human beings and how this, in turn, affects doctors. I've taken some abstract photos evoking the complexity of the body which helps me develop the theme in my painting.’

Patrick plans to have a mid-residency exhibition in the Freeman Centre as an artistic event linked to the series of conferences held at the Jubilee Library within the Brighton Fringe. He also intends to tour with the final exhibition at the end of the residency. Patrick can be contacted on patrick.altes@googlemail.com