“Medical Waste” Kirsten Ostherr Associate Professor, Dept. of English Rice University.

“Medical Waste”

Kirsten OstherrAssociate Professor, Dept. of English

Rice University

Brown University Sciences Library, Providence, RI

National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD

National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD

American College of Surgeons, Chicago, IL

World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

To what extent is the process of eliminating ephemera integral to the constitution of the official archive as official?

What's an ‘orphan film’?Generally, all manner of films outside the commercial mainstream:

amateur, educational,ethnographic,industrial,government,experimental,censored,independent,sponsored,obsolescent,small-gauge,silent,student,medical,unreleased, andunderground films, as well as kinescopes,home movies,test reels,newsreels,outtakes,fringe TV,and otherephemeral moving images.

Ephemerality in media studies: Temporal index (fleeting,

exhibition based)Spatial index (objects preserved or

discarded

Caroline Frick, Saving Cinema (Oxford, 2011)

“…cinema’s public function as art, history, and most recently, cultural heritage… rather than mere entertainment.”

“…the concept of an archive… powerful connotations of authority”

Frick (2011)

“Within corporate discourse… an orphan denotes a product that appears unprofitable and, therefore, unworthy of substantive marketing, promotion, or extensive circulation.”

Frick (2011)

• With These Weapons: The Story of Syphilis (American Social Hygiene Association, 1939);

• Choose to Live (cancer) (US Public Health Service and American Society for the Control of Cancer, 1940);

• Body Defenses Against Disease (ERPI Classroom Films, 1937);

• Heart and Circulation (ERPI, 1937); • Defense Against Invasion (Vaccination) (Walt

Disney, 1943); • Eyes for Tomorrow (Prevention of blindness from

disease and industrial hazards) (Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, 1943);

• Nursing the Americas (Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, 1943);

• The Winged Scourge (Malaria) (Disney, 1943); • Water – Friend or Enemy (Disney, 1943); • Help Wanted (first aid) (Johnson and Johnson,

1940); • Another to Conquer (Native Americans and

tuberculosis) (National Tuberculosis Association, 1941);

• Cloud in the Sky (Tuberculosis in Hispanic population) (National Tuberculosis Association, 1940);

• Fight Syphilis (US Public Health Service, 1943); • Know for Sure (Syphilis) (US Public Health Service,

[1941])

“The development and availability of films of the highest type is especially important at this time in view of the disruption of medical education and medical practice throughout the world. […] American medicine is destined to leave its imprint throughout the world into the indefinite future.” (1949)

Philadelphia Surgical Amphitheater

Philadelphia Medical Film Symposium 2010

What gets left out when medical films become ephemeral?

• Patient identity• Body parts surgically removed• The mundane – ellipses in film skip over

“boring” parts of surgery, focusing our attention only on moments of action

• Obsolete techniques & procedures• Failed interventions – “bad outcomes,”

medical errors• Ethical failures• Residue of training film’s mimetic effects