TRANSpoetry is a venture by Barb Macek that comprises different artistic research projects, combining artistic and scientific methods and transforming the synergies that emerge from the interactions of the different approaches into new knowledge.
The endeavor startet with AUTOIMMUNE TRANSFORMATIONS, a project to develop new ways of research and representation to enable new insights into the phenomenon of autoimmunity. It intends to extend and augment the present picture of autoimmune diseases (especially of SLE, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus) that is dominated by the biomedical discourse with its tendency to exclude all other viewpoints. The overall objective of the project is to create a multifaceted, as comprehensive as possible picture of the individual, social, and cultural meaning of autoimmunity with scientific and poetic means.
Another important project as part of TRANSpoetry is the study „Between agony and ecstasy: investigations into the meaning of pain“. It comprises IMAGE TABLEAUS and PAIN PROFILES in order to find new ways of describing, categorizing, and finally talking about pain.
The project: ANIMALS ARE LOOKING AT YOU is different as it belongs to the area of Anthrozoology and investigates the human-animal-relation in order to rethink nature. It focuses on the gaze of animals and on its possible transforming qualities.
The current works are part of my PhD-project on autoimmunity: POETICAL ANAMNESIS – Creating the Patient as a Poem (the project was developed during my engagement at the Medical University Vienna), and Club of the Autoimmune Eccentrics – a social sculpture and form of quiet activism on behalf of persons concerned by autoimmunity.