Serpens Oleum: The Phantasmagoric Amphigorium of Dr. Wybury

An interactive computer screen and *“Victorian” mouse are housed in the top section of a Victorian cabinet of medical curiosities assembled from Marlena Wyman’s collections. The screen combines digital images of Marlena’s phantasmagoria (her medical/Victorian based artwork) and Chris Westbury’s amphigory (his language-based computer program of bogus medical advice). With our installation, we are seeking to raise questions about how medical facts are presented and simplified for popular consumption; in particular the way in which we are bombarded with “medical fact” via the internet, and how misinterpretation or incomplete reporting of research can subvert medical fact, resulting in a modern version of the snake oil elixir of Victorian times.

View more images in Gallery section of my website

See on-line exhibit catalogue here

*”Victorian” mouse created by Isaac Lank, U of A Dept of Psychology