Consulting Room of the Future, ArtEra Rotterdam & Erasmus MC (2024-5)

What if we see the healthcare system as a living organism—one that grows, changes, and ages like all living things? How can we make sure it adapts to society’s rapidly evolving needs, to ensure our well-being and that of future generations? In Small Gestures, Big System (2025), the artists and designers offer thoughtful examinations of current biomedical research through an artistic lens. They focus on emerging changes within the healthcare system that have yet to be fully embraced by institutional structures. While aware that they represent an alternative voice within the medical and wellness landscape, they believe that even the most modest actions and propositions can lead to meaningful change.

The audiovisual artworks result from ArtEra’s 2024 Summer School on the 'Consulting Room of the Future,' where fellows collaborated with scientists and healthcare professionals on initiatives to rethink the future of healthcare. They explore themes like the changing dynamics between caregiver and patient, hospital acoustics, decentralization of care, new technologies, and the relationship between the economy and the human condition—broad issues within the even broader and very sophisticated healthcare system. The goal was to present different visions for the near future and equip the audience with critical knowledge to reclaim their agency within it.

Three fellows of the 2024 Summer School—Bethan Burnside, Phoebe Hotopf, and Karenina van den Crommenacker—created an artistic installation for Small Gestures, Big System, in collaboration with the Radical Data collective, which was installed at Erasmus MC hospital. The work invited visitors to pause, reflect, and share their own experiences of health, care, and the medical system. As people interacted with the installation, their contributions become part of an evolving collective narrative, allowing the piece to grow throughout its four months on site. It created a space for shared storytelling and helped ensure that the perspectives of people often excluded from medical discourse are centered.

Curated by Rawad Baaklini and Tess de Ruiter.