About This Project

The Invisible Fury is an interactive documentary that examines the effects of the “battle” language associated with cancer care. The aim of the documentary is to provide a centralized database that contains personal accounts of people’s experiences with cancer and its associated

I was brought on this project to collaborate with Jana Bolotin in creating an introductory video for the website. We wanted to bring some beautiful archival photographs and share the story of Lora Maggini, inspiration for the project.

Project Intention

The project scope is to unpack the battle rhetoric associated with cancer. The rhetoric of “invasion,” “cancer battle” and “survivorship” have negative psychological and emotional consequences for patients. This aggressive language victimizes and compounds the challenges of those facing cancer or those that have gone through cancer and “lost.” The project aim is to unpack these consequences of the warfare language through two discursive categories of “Fury” and “Invisibility.” The “Fury” corresponds to topics of cellular multiplication and bodily manipulation. The “Invisibility” corresponds to issues of the confounding nature of cancer and its associated paradoxes of research, prevention, and treatment. Sub-items of invisibility also include the very active online support communities that are created by anonymous users.

The implications of this project are to give space to more cancer retrospectives that are not anonymous and to contest the “battle” language. This project further contributes to research in public education of how cancer operates socially. The Invisible Fury Project also contributes to research in the digital arts in creating a curated platform for illness narratives.