TABOO - TRANSGRESSION - TRANSCENDENCE

What does it mean to know our internal organs truly? How does it come I am always in touch with them but only feel them when there is pain? How can we empathise with parts of ourselves often considered dysfunctional, unworthy, or silent? And how might medical technologies become tools for storytelling and care rather than mere diagnostics? These questions guide Bodyscapes, a project that explores the intersection of body, biology, and technology through my intimate experiences with uterine polyps, cysts, and endometriosis. Diagnosed with polycystic ovaries at fourteen and later with uterine polyps by age 25, my journey of chronic symptoms has transformed into a daily practice of self-discovery, now mediated through portable ultrasound scans, technology and computers for artistic explorations of self-surveillance. These scans and data paired with reflections and digital interpretations, document the sensations and emotions that emerge alongside my hormones.

Inspired by Niall Richardson’s Transgressive Bodies and Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor, this project reimagines my body as a transgressive queer force— active participant in its narrative rather than a passive subject of medical readings. Considering also the concept of "becoming with"  I investigate how becoming with the medical tools as artistic devices can reframe the story of these organs, turning pathology into ritual. The organs that were once thought to be sterile and dysfunctional now embody growth and liveliness, giving birth to a multitude of cysts and polyps. 

The paper brings together medical imaging, rituals of care, and digital technologies, challenging normative views of illness. It celebrates the messiness, hairiness, blobyness, and complexity of body textures of unwell bodies, offering a safe space for self-surveillance and reclamation of bodily warmth and agency. This is not about diagnosing sickness but about finding meaning, empathy, and aesthetics within the complexities of what it means to be unwell.