A Whole Systems Approach to Health, Art and Ecology

I am writing from Teufen, a small town in the Swiss mountains. I am here because of a unique health clinic called the Paracelsus Klinik. The Paracelsus Klinik is the home of biological medicine, a type of medicine that looks at the body as a whole system and embraces the cutting edge of alternative and scientific medicine. I am here because I have a bladder disease that is a mystery to mainstream medicine and I have lived in constant pain since 2001. The Paracelsus Klinik has had amazing success treating all sorts of “untreatable” diseases and they have an enviable record of curing cancer, tumours, inflammatory, autoimmune and degenerative diseases. In my life I am becoming increasingly interested in whole systems thinking. Systems thinking is a framework that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system can best be understood in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation. I am noticing the connections and the interconnections. It is easy to see however that in society there is a dangerous trend towards specializing. Doctors who focus on one part of the body, urology, gynaecology, podiatry, create the misconception that each part of the body is autonomous, whereas in fact a root canal can lead to arthritis or even heart disease, and the whole body is affected when one part is inflamed. In my body, in my art and in my work I am interested in how to embrace a whole systems approach.

So far this semester I feel like my understanding of new forms of contemporary art practice has expanded. I am particularly interested in dialogical art, ecological art and the trend towards interdisciplinary collaboration. As I look at my blood under darkfield microscopy and see the alkaline and acidic balance of my body, or a bacterial invasion, it reminds me of the water testing that I do for my work, noticing the total suspended solids or ammonia. In ecological wastewater treatment we look at the cycle of water and how the wastewater is a resource and when cleaned with micro-organisms in systems that replicate the kidneys of the earth, wetlands, the water can be returned to the toilets for re-use or become valuable irrigation water. With my thoughts often on waste products internal and external it is clear that all aspects of the cycle must be examined. In a river the source is as important as the sink and the cities and towns, the factories and fertilizers all take their toll. In the body our food greatly affects our health, 80% of the immune system is in the small intestines, the chemicals and toxins from food, water, air and stress slowly lead to illness.

In order to come into balance it is essential to address all the problems and to listen deeply. So the artist working in community or from a dialogical or whole systems approach does not begin from a place of knowing, but instead involves all the people, asks questions and from this process the art unfolds, so too in biological medicine health comes from addressing all possible weaknesses and boosting the immune system. When a doctor gives chemical medicine to hide the symptom the problem does not go away, sewage flowing into a river appears to disappear but in fact is doing great harm, public art about a subject which was not involved, can be alienating and ultimately less successful than art that comes out of dialogue. Grant H. Kester writes, “Throughout, the locus of expressive meaning remains the radically autonomous figure of the individual artist. A dialogical aesthetic suggests a very different image of the artist, one defined in terms of openness, of listening, and of a willingness to accept a position of dependence and intersubjective vulnerability relative to the viewer or collaborator.”

It is clear that the grave problems facing each of us personally, facing society as a whole and facing the environment do not have easy answers. In complexity we must use creative whole systems thinking, look outside of the box and involve people from all backgrounds, knowledge and skill sets. Here at Paracelsus I see a kinesiologist one moment and receive an intravenous drip of vitamins and homeopathic medicines the next. I am reminded of the artist Jay Koh who began with a focus on health even creating an interactive information system for patients to evaluate and read evaluations of doctors. Much of his work has involved interdisciplinary and intercultural dialogue. His organization “arting” focuses on art as a means for social and structural change especially centred on Asia. In writing about arting Kester writes, “Underlying many of arting’s projects is the recognition that complex social and political issues, like those raised by genetic research, cannot be adequately addressed simply by fabricating physical objects but require polyvalent responses that operate on multiple levels of public interaction.” In the Paracelsus Klinik I have learned about multiple contributors to my illness, elevated levels of mercury and arsenic, viruses and bacteria in the blood, food allergies.. likewise if an artist is looking to create substantial change it is important to observe, listen, here from different perspectives, be inclusive and use a variety of approaches. A painkiller is not a cure, a complex system needs a solution that can address its complexity, a wastewater treatment system must be sized to the population, it must be resilient and able to create multiple biological processes, any treatment, physical, social ecological needs to be kaleidoscopic in nature.