Hidden behind the screen: seeing the life and death boundary in an intensive care unit

Abstract

The article traces how the life-death boundary in the intensive care unit is made visible on hospital monitors (in figures and diagnostic images), in medical dramas and docu-series as well as via video surveillance. The starting point is the question of how much the life-death boundary is accessible to be viewed directly – not only with the naked eye, but also with the help of special devices. In search for answers to this question, the author focuses on the semantic field of the “screen” concept. Screen, on the one hand, can be considered as a surface on which an image is projected; on the other hand, it can be a pro-tective barrier. In other words, screen can be a tool for both turning the invisible into the visible and vice versa. This antinomy between visibility and invisibility can be traced both in relation to hospital monitors as well as to TV and video surveillance. Screen has its frames and technical limitations that determine the selectivity of representation. In conclusion, the author assumes that the intention to objectively record the moment of death, to make this boundary clearly visible from a scientific point of view makes it, on the contrary, escape the eye. What is managed to be registered and made visible turns out to be an artifact. In this sense, the life-death boundary in critical medicine appears as a multiple construct – of theoretical, technological, and socio-cultural nature. Probably, the paradox is that this transition from life to death can be seen more clearly with the naked eye rather than with diagnostic and monitoring technologies.