(x) installations • (x) unikat — one of a kind

in the course of a design and arts competition this large flapbook installation came to existence. the cluster of excellence inflammation at interfaces at the university of kiel concentrates on research about inflammatory diseases. to raise awareness about this highly recent topic, artists and designers were selected for an exhibition. all elements of this work are scientifically correct thanks to the great help of prof. fölster-holst. i focused on the fact that, contrary to popular belief, the symptoms, course and consequences of inflammatory diseases vary significantly. every person therefore requires individual treatment (as a unikat — a unique person). using the skin disease neurodermatitis as a basis, i wanted to emphasise the importance of this holistic approach. the two flapbooks in the size of 420x594mm allow the symptoms of the patient to be playfully re-combined again and again. the user thus gets the opportunity to repeatedly create completely individual patients, which all suffer the same disease. the different symptoms have been translated into abstract patterns to distance from the usual medical presentation of skin diseases and to lower the inhibition threshold for the visitor. using the handy legend correctly, one can get detailed information about each symptom. the skin-like cover material with engraved letters provides a haptic introduction to the topic of skin diseases.