Attention: This page contains digital documentation of materials currently being developed for a physical Installation. This is an ongoing record of a work in progress.

Slow Burn / Burn Fields

Radiation therapy is invisible, intangible, and unremarkable. It is difficult to quantify and qualify, as the process itself can not be seen, heard, or felt. It subverts traditional media capture by virtue of its own nature: you can not record radiation treatment, visually or sonically, as its functional mechanism is invisible to the eye, inaudible to the ear, and — perhaps most importantly — thwarted by the presence of any metallic substance, rendering traditional media inert.

It does, however, leave a physical record. Though not directly capture-able by traditional media, the marks of radiation emerge, over time, on the body itself: inscriptions in the form of lines, blocks, and patches of damage. Layer by cellular layer, to the surface where they make themselves known. Then, like wet ink, the marks deepen, spread, and, ultimately seep back into the porous body of the organism.

It is a ‘record’ that is intense and painful, yet unceremoniously brief. Burns heal, and new layers of skin emerge, wiping all evidence of trauma and damage away from sight, deceptively absent to those unaware. The skin of the body becomes an unconventional time-based media, existing somewhere between zoetropes and auto-destructive art. No traditional medium, such as celluloid or tape, is capable of recording this story due to the metallic components embedded within, which scatter and block ionized beams.

Slow Burn / Burn Fields uses specialized Radiochromic film (normally reserved for dosimetry) to materially capture the process of radiation treatment, making visible the unseen photon beams as they work to destroy their target site. Placed behind the patient’s shoulder blade each day, the films below record 25 sessions over the course of 5 weeks.

Technical Information: 25 fractions of 50 Gy external beam photon radiation targeting the left breast, chestwall and comprehensive regional nodal lymphatics.

Total series.

Top, left to right: Calibration film (0), Treatments 1 - 12.

Bottom, left to right: Treatments 13 - 25.

Individual film scans. Landscape facing up, landscape facing down, portrait facing up, portrait facing down.

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An enormous thank you to the amazing techs that let me do this crazy experiment (and cheered me along the entire way), and who were also beautiful lights shining in each very dark day. Additional thanks to the nurses, staff, and doctors who cared for me so well, and Good Sam Butler Radiation Oncology for approving my use of their very expensive equipment:

For Marcia, Kerri, Melissa, Bethany, Lori, Tiana, Amy, Christy, Deb, Kristina, Theresa, and Dr. Shehata.

Thank you to my family, near and far:

To Eric, Nina, Lydia, Julie, Denny, Jack, Lisa, Suzanne, Marnie, Cliff, Sara, Molly and family, Caitlin and family, Nick and family, Luke and family, Alex and family, Lena, Lizzie, Jeanette, Bob, Michael, Jenna, and Andrea.

Additional special thank you to the Reddit communities r/Radiology and r/radiationoncology — users u/Traditional_Day4327, u/1head2arms2legs, u/raccoonsandstuff, and u/radoncdoc13 in particular.

Dedicated to my Mom.