hiv/aids in the visual arts: applying discipline-based art education (dbae) to medical humanities

HIV ⁄AIDS in the visual arts: applying discipline-based arteducation (DBAE) to medical humanities

Ricardo Tapajos

Context and Rationale Health professions educators

have been systematically attempting to insert the

humanities into health professions curricula for over

4 decades, with various degrees of success. Among the

several medical humanities, the visual arts seem par-

ticularly adequate for the teaching ⁄ learning of crucial

aspects of medicine. Educational efforts in the arts re-

quire, however, a sound pedagogical philosophy of art

education. Health professions educators need therefore

to be aware of educational frameworks in the arts.

Discipline-based art education (DBAE) is a recognised

contemporary educational framework for the teach-

ing ⁄ learning of the arts, which may be adapted to

medical humanities.

Objective It is the ultimate objective of this essay to

share the experience of applying this educational

framework to a course in a medical curriculum.

Methods The author describes a course on the repre-

sentations of HIV ⁄AIDS in the visual arts, with explicit

reference to its objectives, content, instructional fea-

tures and student assessment in the light of DBAE,

whose principles and characteristics are described in

detail.

Results and Conclusion Discipline-based art education

may be applied to medical humanities courses in a

medical curriculum. This essay throws light on how this

structure may be particularly useful for designing other

pedagogically sound art courses in health professions

curricula.

Keywords education, medical, undergraduate ⁄*methods; humanities ⁄ *education; curriculum; HIV

infections ⁄ *psychology; attitude; learning; teaching;

Brazil.

Medical Education 2003;37:563–570

Introduction

From antiquity to the present day, the human

activities that now fall within the umbrella of medicine

and the other health professions have dealt in a host

of different ways with the knowledge bases that

inform them. Humanistic and scientific knowledge

(or, more generally put in terms of modern notions,

humanism and science) has often presented itself

dichotomously to medicine, which has sequentially

espoused one or other aspect at specific historical

moments. These historically placed epistemological

models defined what were to be considered, at a given

time, adequate professional praxis and desirable pro-

fessionals. For over 40 years, a humanistic epistemo-

logical model has imposed itself on the health

professions. According to this model, the emblematic

health professional not only has scientific and techni-

cal excellence, but also exhibits humanist and humane

traits as a well rounded, learned and educated

individual.1 If health professionals must wield the

humanistic competencies imparted by a general edu-

cation, health professions students must be prepared

for these new roles and health professions education

must consider the insertion of humanistic components

into curricula.

Awareness of this necessity and consequent endeav-

ours to address it in medical curricula began as early as

the 1960s in some pioneering countries where the

medical humanities had thrived sufficiently to assume

their rightful place in medical education.2 In fact, the

concept of using the humanities in the service of

medical education seems now to have grown beyond

the geographic borders of these countries to touch other

societies where medical curricula have historically relied

solely on science, often at the expense of humanism.

Such is the case in Brazil, where awareness of the

potential of the humanistic disciplines and their

Department of Infectious Diseases, University of Sao Paulo School of

Medicine, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Correspondence: Ricardo Tapajos MD, MHPE, Rua Agisse, 172, apto

151 ⁄ 152, CEP 05439-010, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil. Tel.: 00 55 11 3285

1511, 55 11 3816 3925; Fax: 00 55 11 3285 2234; E-mail:

[email protected]

Arts and Humanities

� Blackwell Publishing Ltd MEDICAL EDUCATION 2003;37:563–570 563

possible contributions to medical formation is only now

beginning to dawn. In this way, new opportunities have

arisen for teaching the humanities – and the visual arts –

to medical students in Brazil, in general, and at the

University of Sao Paulo School of Medicine, in partic-

ular.3

Given that teaching medical humanities is a legitim-

ate educational enterprise,4–6 rather than a mere

digression or diversion from an otherwise dense med-

ical curriculum, special attention must be paid to the

educational frameworks that support the teach-

ing ⁄ learning of these disciplines, especially with refer-

ence to the visual arts. Discipline-based art education

(DBAE) is a recognised educational framework for the

teaching ⁄ learning of the arts, which may be adapted to

the medical humanities. This essay is written with the

intention of sharing the experience of applying this

educational framework to a course in a medical

curriculum and thus throwing light on how this

structure may be particularly useful for designing other

arts courses in health professions curricula.

The course

The course �The Representations of HIV ⁄AIDS in the

Visual Arts� is an elective course offered by the

Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases at

the University of Sao Paulo School of Medicine to

medical students in Years 2 to 6 of the curriculum. It is

a 2-credit course (1 credit equals 15 class hours)

entailing 4-hour activities once a week for 8 consecutive

weeks.

Rationale

There has been growing interest in the interaction

between medicine and the arts, which is reflected in the

existence of a considerable body of literature on the

subject, and in descriptions of efforts to use poetry,

plays, short stories, novels, films and paintings as the

basis for teaching medical students.7 Including the

visual arts in medical curricula seems desirable for

many reasons. They offer opportunities for reflection

and non-scientific thinking, such as discussion, medi-

tation, reflection, metaphor-based thought and intel-

lectual and sensual aesthetic reactions. They foster

observation, analysis and hermeneutic abilities. The

visual arts unchain feelings and impart awareness of

personal values and feelings. They foster specific

intellectual and psychomotor skills that are useful for

the profession, such as spatial vision and the ability to

think in 3 dimensions. In addition, the visual arts are

fun and recreational, in as much as they generate

pleasure and allow for a contrapuntal relaxation to daily

stress.8–11

It is not, therefore, surprising to find the existence of

many courses on the arts within health professions

curricula. These have been extensively compiled else-

where.11 Some of them specifically address the visual

arts, but multi-art courses also exist. However, few arts

courses seem to exclusively gravitate around the theme

of HIV ⁄AIDS. When they do, they are either targeted

at fundamental or secondary education, or else, they

tend to rely heavily on the literary rather than the visual

arts.11 These considerations attest to the uniqueness of

the thematic course described here, which was specif-

ically designed for a medical curriculum.

There are many other diseases or pathological

conditions that may lend themselves to a thematic

arrangement in the arts. HIV ⁄AIDS has been chosen

for specific reasons. There are innumerable artists and

works of art addressing the disease and its impact on

humankind, in the most varied choices of techniques

and media, including those pertaining to the visual arts.

In addition, there is a vast amount of sound scholarly

literature addressing the artistic manifestations connec-

ted to HIV ⁄AIDS, especially in the field of art criticism.

A final, but fundamental, point concerns the fact that

the epidemic is recent in medical terms and its impact is

not only historical but also contemporary. Students

tend to show extra-professional interest for all aspects

of the epidemic, which is part of the world in which

they have grown up and against which their parents

have warned them. The epidemic of HIV ⁄AIDS has

evoked so many responses in terms of human behaviour

that it alone narrates a great deal about human nature.

Key learning points

Discipline-based art education (DBAE) is a rec-

ognised educational framework for the teach-

ing ⁄ learning of the arts, which may be adapted to

medical humanities.

DBAE provides integration and acquisition of the

contents of, exposure to and experience with 4

disciplines of artistic knowledge, namely art his-

tory, art criticism, art production and aesthetics.

DBAE demands 6 curricular dispositions, namely,

completeness, explicitness, articulation, equipoise,

flexibility and developmental adequacy.

DBAE may be an invaluable tool for educators

concerned with the planning of arts courses in

health professions curricula.

Visual arts and discipline-based art education in medical humanities • R Tapajos564

� Blackwell Publishing Ltd MEDICAL EDUCATION 2003;37:563–570

It is this knowledge of human nature that this course

seeks to impart to students.

Educational framework: DBAE

The educational aspects of the medical humanities are

overwhelmingly rich and have been reviewed else-

where.12 The design of a humanistic course for medical

students should capitalise on this wealth of educational

experience, but some concerns in course design and

implementation seem to be key.13 The message that

should be conveyed is that such courses need to be

granted equal status to other curricular components in

terms of grading and student commitment. This

message is better approached by means of a thorough

and canonical educational structure that comprehends

enunciated objectives, instructional strategies and

assessment procedures.

When the humanistic discipline in question concerns

the visual arts, these educational efforts should be

accordingly backed up by a sound philosophy of art

education. Discipline-based art education (DBAE) is a

contemporary orientation to art education that involves

a comprehensive approach to instruction in art.14,15

This pedagogical approach may be very helpful for the

teaching ⁄ learning of the visual arts to medical students.

It has, thus, been chosen as the pedagogical basis for

the design of this course.

The term DBAE was coined by Greer in 1984, but

the general principles associated with this educational

orientation can be traced to earlier authors.14,15 In the

early 1980s, a new institutional resource for art educa-

tion surfaced (at first known as the Getty Centre for

Education in the Arts and later renamed the Getty

Education Institute for the Arts). This embraced

DBAE, fostering its dissemination in the USA.15

Developed primarily for elementary and secondary

schools, DBAE has since expanded its applicability to

adult education.15

Discipline-based art education was conceived in

opposition to the creative self-expression approach

that had dominated art education, whereby art was the

instrument for developing a child’s inherent creativity

and expressive abilities.14 This former approach placed

instructional emphasis on art creation and studio work

and discouraged assessment of educational achieve-

ments so as not to vex the child’s progress.14 Disci-

pline-based art education, on the contrary,

understands that art can and should be taught as any

school subject, through formal instruction, with dis-

tinctive goals, contents, methods and assessment

dispositions.14 It also takes it for granted that the

processes of aesthetically experiencing and under-

standing art are as educationally valuable as that of

creating it.

Partaking of a broad view of art and art education,

DBAE was designed to provide integration and acqui-

sition of contents from, exposure to and experience

with 4 disciplines of artistic knowledge.14,15 These

foundational disciplines are art history, art criticism, art

production and aesthetics. In this way, students in

DBAE should be able to create works of art (art

production), describe, interpret, evaluate and theorise

about works of art (art criticism), inquire into the

historical, social and cultural contexts of art objects (art

history), and raise and examine questions about the

nature, meaning and value of art and what distinguishes

it from other phenomena (aesthetics).15

In pedagogical terms, DBAE demands 6 curricular

dispositions, namely, completeness (DBAE curricula

must comprise all canonical educational elements, from

objectives to student assessment and programme eval-

uation), explicitness (written curricula attest to the

explicit contract of teaching ⁄ learning), articulation

(curricular organisation must reflect adequate sequen-

cing and articulation of elements), equipoise (curricular

structure must reflect comparable concern and respect

for each of the 4 foundational disciplines), flexibility

(the curriculum must be flexibly configured to fit the

needs, resources and circumstances of programmes)

and developmental adequacy (because DBAE may be

applicable to several educational levels, curricula must

be aware of the students’ developmental stage, especi-

ally in the case of children).14,15

Art education has been justified in curricula by

means of 2 non-mutually exclusive classes of argu-

ments.15 The essentialist point of view supports the

notion that art should exist in curricula for what it

provides, that is, a source of aesthetic experiences.15

The instrumentalist perspective values art for its con-

tribution to the attainment of more general goals in

other areas, such as perception of a multicultural

society, cognitive development, competence in com-

munication, imagination and judgement.15 Because it

bears both intrinsic value and utilitarian or extrinsic

value, art education can make a central contribution to

a well rounded general education.14,15

By meeting both the essentialist and instrumentalist

dispositions of art education, DBAE roots it in general

education.14,15 In this way, goals, procedures and

assessment in DBAE are specific to the content of art,

but are at the service of general education, in as much

as DBAE encourages teachers to make appropriate

connections between art and other subjects and disci-

plines in curricula, promoting reciprocal integra-

tion.14,15 Discipline-based art education is not meant

Visual arts and discipline-based art education in medical humanities • R Tapajos 565


to educate prospective scholars, artists or specialists,

nor is it applicable only to the few gifted students whom

art has touched.15 On the contrary, DBAE is aimed at

all students. Thus, DBAE seems to be an invaluable aid

to mediate a general education in health professions

curricula.

Course objectives

The course �The Representations of HIV ⁄AIDS in

the Visual Arts� has 6 general objectives that have

derived from the 4 foundational disciplines of DBAE.

Each objective consists of a main stem that describes

the expected behaviour that the course seeks to

facilitate. More specified objectives (not presented

here) follow each stem, shedding light on the steps

required for the accomplishment of the main expec-

ted behaviour. At the end of the course, students

should be able to:

1 ground their critique of works of art in the historical

context (social, political and cultural milieus) in

which those works were produced;

2 critique a work of art by formulating a tentative

interpretation (i.e. attribute meaning) based on

inherent aspects of the work (iconography, symbol-

ism, narrative, etc.) and the referential systems

external to it (psychological, political, ideological,

etc.);

3 reflect on context-placed characters, artists and

subjects of the works of art, whose narratives or

depictions gravitate around their encounter with

HIV ⁄AIDS, either as patients or as health care

professionals;

4 examine statements and judgements about works of

art, in order to determine underlying concepts of

beauty, art and other value systems;

5 produce visual arts projects with reference to

HIV ⁄AIDS, and

6 reflect upon and revise their own values and attitudes

in relation to the disease, patients with HIV ⁄AIDS

and caring for those patients.

With respect to the foundational disciplines of

DBAE, objective 1 operates in the realm of art history,

whereas objective 2 pertains to art criticism. Objective 3

addresses aspects of both art criticism and art history.

Objectives 4 and 5, respectively, refer to aesthetics and

art production. Objective 6 addresses art criticism and

art history in so far as it proposes, among other topics,

that students revise and challenge their stereotypes of

who contracts AIDS and why, reflect upon their own

relative position as intra- or extra-community members

of the epidemic and be prepared to discuss depictions

of homosexuality, the male homosexual body and drug

addiction.

It should be noted that DBAE, while requiring

balanced objectives in the 4 foundational disciplines,

contributes to the generation of a wide range of

medically relevant objectives. Objectives in art criticism

contribute towards facilitating interpretive behaviours

that require perceptive capacities, critical analysis,

acknowledgement of multiple hermeneutic possibilities,

the ability to communicate one’s thoughts in an

organised manner, reflection and elaboration of values

and judgements. Objectives in art history forcefully

point to the societal, political and cultural contexts

where medicine is practised and where patients experi-

ence their illnesses. Objectives in aesthetics operate in

the realm of singular meanings that cannot be gener-

alised, thus opening to medical students the potentials

of non-scientific forms of knowledge, whether they be

epiphanic, sensuous or experiential in nature. Finally,

art production engenders the possibilities of expression,

acknowledgement of one’s own feelings and experi-

mentation with other forms of communication to

convey meaning.

All the objectives illustrated above have been very

prevalent in medical humanities programmes, and

enabling their accomplishment is the very reason why

these disciplines have been inserted into medical

curricula in the first place. Thus, objectives generated

with the aid of DBAE may guarantee the extensive

scope and intensive depth of the objectives that are

characteristic of the medical humanities.

At the same time, these objectives need not let go of

the customary framework that scaffolds the enunciation

of objectives in medical education, that is the taxonomy

whereby objectives are organised in the cognitive,16 the

affective17 and the psychomotor domains.18 The

6 course objectives mentioned above do address all

3 domains. Objectives 1)4 are cognitive objectives,

whereas objectives 5 and 6 are, respectively, psycho-

motor-related and affective in their essence.

Customary though it may be, this taxonomy leaves

unmapped some aspects of knowledge that are crucial

to the humanities and the arts. Alternative taxonomies

for educational objectives exist that contemplate these

aspects. Phenix19 describes 6 realms or domains where

knowledge operates, namely empirics (scientific know-

ledge), symbolics (languages, codes and communica-

tion), ethics (informed choices), aesthetics (singular,

particular knowledge), synnoetics (introspective know-

ledge and insight) and synoptics (integrated meanings

such as in philosophy and religion). This taxonomy has

been used in health professions education.20,21 The

6 course objectives allow educational achievements in



all realms of meaning, mainly in symbolics, aesthetics,

synoptics, synnoetics and ethics. The latter 2 realms

deserve further comments.

The explicit direction of objectives towards the realm

of synnoetics constitutes a noteworthy strategy for

curriculum planning, especially where students are

young and likely to be immature. Furthermore, having

a formal educational structure means having the means

to convey the message to students and faculty that self-

development is crucial for the physician-to-be.

In the realm of ethics, in particular, the objectives

raise considerations about appropriate representations

of HIV ⁄AIDS patients in the visual arts. This important

educational dimension of the programme relies on the

very function of the arts to challenge and transgress

conventions, in this case, in relation to medico-ethical

sensitivities towards individual patients.

Course overview

The course �The Representations of HIV ⁄AIDS in the

Visual Arts� has 4 modules (Graphic Arts, Plastic Arts,

Photography and the AIDS Memorial Quilt) and

protected time for structural activities, such as course

presentation, closure and evaluation. It begins with an

introductory lecture on postmodernism, which serves

as a basis for the rest of the course.

Graphic Arts I introduces AIDS activist graphic art

and manifestations of rage in the context of the

epidemic. Inspired by Jimmy Somerville’s22 activist

songs, students are asked to plan and produce posters

(art production) in the manner of AIDS activist art.

Later in the course, these posters are presented to the

rest of the class for critique and assessment (art

criticism).

Plastic Arts I offers a panorama of artists that

address HIV ⁄AIDS. Its several styles and imagery

make this an adequate activity for exercises in art

criticism and aesthetics. Plastic Arts II narrows and

deepens this approach, by focusing on the oeuvre of

3 artists, namely, Derek Jarman, Jose Leonilson and

Masami Teraoka. The former 2 artists died of AIDS-

related complications and depicted their disease and

suffering in their art in rather different ways. Masami

Teraoka is the great portrayer of the heterosexual

transmission of HIV and his works are populated

with allusions to safer sex and women’s vulnerability.

Their different nationalities (British, Brazilian and

Japanese, respectively) serve to add issues about the

different historical contexts of AIDS and cultural

diversity (art history). Plastic Arts III intensively

addresses 1 artist and his oeuvre, including photo-

graphic, textual and multimedia production with

dense iconography; David Wojnarowicz is an Ameri-

can artist who died of AIDS and left behind a huge

artistic legacy.

Photography I and II address postmodern documen-

tary photography and portraiture in the context of

HIV ⁄AIDS. The activities illustrate how to approach

photographic criticism (art criticism), based on the

works of Cindy Sherman, Rosalind Solomon, Brian

Weil, Duane Michals, Nan Goldin and Robert

Mapplethorpe, among others. An external referential

framework for art criticism, namely, the concepts of

intra- and extra-community representations of people

with AIDS, is introduced and deepened.23 Students

receive typical intra-community (by Carolyn Jones) and

extra-community photographs (by Nicholas Nixon),

along with a group home assignment. In Photography

III these groups will face each other in a debate on

which of the 2 artists should be funded with a fictitious

grant. Students have to position themselves judgemen-

tally and present their arguments about what consti-

tutes art and how it should be valued (aesthetics).

Furthermore, they will have plenty of opportunity to

discuss the representation of people with HIV ⁄AIDS

and how this may construct the reality of the disease

from a cultural constructionist point of view.24

The AIDS Memorial Quilt module is constructed to

expose students to several artistic media, thus encour-

aging them to experiment with different kinds of

language to achieve (aesthetics) and convey (art pro-

duction) meaning. The Quilt is discussed as an object

of art itself, within the frame of the visual and narrative

arts, whereby it is seen as a text or a novel, polymor-

phic, polysemic and multivocal (art criticism). Another

activity is based on Corigliano’s Symphony Number 1

and Of Rage and Remembrance, both of which are

ideologically connected to the Quilt. These pieces of

classical music offer the students the possibility of

critique and reflection upon a completely non-discur-

sive language (aesthetics ⁄ art criticism). In this module,

students are also assigned the task of individually

producing a piece of artwork (art production), using

the technique of collage. They may choose to portray

patients, health care professionals, their own feelings or

any other aspects of the disease.

This brief description of the course should serve as an

illustration of how objectives and content may be

balanced within and articulated among the 4 founda-

tional disciplines in a way that provides the course with

continuity, cohesion and sustentation. (Table 1 pro-

vides more detailed samples of the objectives of

1 exemplary module.) Thus, DBAE seems to serve as

sound scaffolding for the enterprise of designing and

running arts courses in health professions education.



Instructional features and assessment

Instructional formats include the lecture, but more

predominantly small group formats, where students’

active participation is prominent. Students are assessed

for their participation in regular instructional activities

and in the activities specifically designed for assess-

ment, namely, the production of a poster in the manner

of AIDS activist art, a debate about portraiture of

people with HIV ⁄AIDS and the production of a collage.

Assessment may be thus accomplished in the 4 foun-

dational disciplines of DBAE.

Course evaluation

This course has been offered on a regular basis since

2000. Around 50 students have so far enrolled in and

completed the course. All of them have shared their

comments and perceptions about the programme by

means of a structured questionnaire. In general,

students tend to appreciate the course structure and

seriousness, are particularly fond of the many oppor-

tunities to direct their gaze to non-scientific subjects

that pertain to medical praxis and regularly suggest that

the duration of the courses should be increased. Based

on these evaluations, the course has already been

extended to 5 credits.

Discussion, conclusions and recommendations

This course is an example of a thematic approach to the

humanities that might be emblematic for the planning

of other courses. They revolve around a medical

condition (the theme), approaching it through several

non-medical lenses (the humanities), in contrast to

classic programmes that gravitate around the human-

ities, such as medical history or medical philosophy

programmes.

Table 1 Specific objectives of an exemplary instructional module: Photography

At the end of this unit, students should be able to:

1 Critique a photograph, by analysing its formal elements and meaning (and how they interconnect), with adequate language

for art criticism (AC); the relative positions of photographers, viewers and subjects should be acknowledged (AC)

2 Cite main characteristics of the photographic genres of portraiture and documentary (AC)

3 Enumerate characteristics of postmodernism in photography and recognise them in selected works (AC)

4 Recognise and critique the use of sequencing to express the element of time in a photograph (AC)

5 Critique the use of photomontages and the use of words and text in photography (AC)

6 Reflect upon the concept and representations of beauty in photography, especially in Mapplethorpe (AE)

7 Forward arguments as to whether these portraits are art (AE), and make judgmental decisions about funding in terms of

artistic merit (AE)

8 Narrate how AIDS has been represented in photography in the discursive fields of medicine, photojournalism and art

photography (AH)

9 Analyse how the body has been represented in postmodern photography (AH) and critique its representation in a given

photograph (AC)

10 Agree to discuss the representations of drug addition, especially in Weil (AFF)

11 Recognise questions of identity, representation and privacy in the depiction of the sick body (AC)

12 List photographers who depicted AIDS, along with some of their characteristics (AH), recognising authorship in

Mapplethorpe, Goldin, Michals

13 Identify representations of dominant versus counter-dominant discourses and stereotyping in AIDS photography (AC ⁄AH)

and place them historically (AH)

14 Explain with own words what Grover means by extra-community versus intra-community representations of AIDS

in photography (AC)

15 Reflect upon own relative position as intra- or extra-community voices and revise personal attitudes in respect to this

(AFF); discuss what it takes to make the move from extra- to intra-community membership (AFF)

16 Distinguish between photographic representations of people living with AIDS and dying of AIDS and their social

repercussions (AC ⁄AH)

17 Reflect about and narrate, from the photographs discussed, how some patients might have experienced corporality, sexuality,

sensuality, the centrality of AIDS in their lives, family and social relationships, isolation, disease, stigma and death (AC)

and possibly empathise with them (AFF)

18 Enumerate some reasons why a person with AIDS ⁄HIV might desire to be photographed (AE)

19 Discuss the forms of societal opposition to the depiction of homosexual imagery (AH), especially in the cases of

Mapplethorpe and Serrano

AC ¼ art criticism; AH ¼ art history; AE ¼ aesthetics; AFF ¼ objective in the affective domain.



Many humanistic courses that address the visual arts

within health professions curricula are described in the

literature. It is, however, noteworthy that none of them

explicitly selected and applied a recognised educational

framework specific for the teaching ⁄ learning of the arts.

Rooted in DBAE, our course therefore represents an

original innovation in the realms of health professions

education, offering a sound paradigm for the planning

of art courses in this context. Furthermore, it also

pleads originality in the realms of art education, in as

much as it enlarges the applications of DBAE to a field

of action (i.e. health professions education) where no

former references to its use exist.

Discipline-based art education may be an invaluable

tool for educators concerned with the planning of arts

courses in health professions curricula. Its wise and

adequate application in such contexts may generate a

meaningful and rewarding repertoire of humanistic

disciplines that address other themes (such as trauma,

cancer, psychiatric disorders, drug addiction and other

infectious diseases), other arts (such as cinema and

drama) and ⁄or other audiences (allied health profes-

sions) at other levels (residency, clerkship, faculty

development or continuing medical education). In

addition, units or isolated instructional activities may

be adapted, with the aid of DBAE, for extracurricular

use, specialty meetings or insertion within pre-existing

disciplines in complementation to their objectives.

For instance, Frida Kahlo’s painterly oeuvre contri-

butes a rich collection of poignant depictions of trauma,

physical disability and rehabilitation. Thus, these

paintings potentially constitute a rich instrument for

health professions educators who want to expose their

students to discussion about the impact of these

ailments on a human being. How exactly should

educators use these instruments and with what finality?

Discipline-based art education may help them give

form to their ideas, offering a theoretical structure that

organises and unfolds many possibilities. In Kahlo’s

case, objectives and activities in art criticism may

gravitate around how pain and frustration are conveyed

through painterly conventions and by which means the

suffering female body is represented. Art history offers

discussions about whether gender issues affect assump-

tions about disability and illness and about the role of

technology in replacing bodily functions that have been

lost to disease. Aesthetic considerations may propose

the comparison of depictions of the sick versus the

healthy female body to reveal what functions these

depictions serve, or address the discussion about

whether disease may be a subject of art, in as much as

art is frequently perceived as dealing mainly with the

idea of beauty. Can disease as a human experience be

beautiful? Art production may help the development of

empathy, if students are invited to produce some

graphic work about how they would feel if they had

some personal disability.

The DBAE-based course �The Representations of

HIV ⁄AIDS in the Visual Arts� thus provides an illus-

tration and a coherent model for the insertion of artistic

components into the medical curriculum, a task dear to

medical educators, without letting go of its specialised

knowledge and focused approach.

Acknowledgements

The planning of the course described in this essay was

part of a thesis submitted as a requirement for the

Master in Health Professions Education (MHPE) at

the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at

Chicago, 2000. I would like to thank all my colleagues

at the Department of Medical Education and partic-

ularly my main adviser, Suzanne Poirier, for her

unwavering support.

Funding

This work was partially funded by a grant from the

Centre for the Development of Medical Education

(CEDEM), University of Sao Paulo School of Medicine.

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Received 1 July 2002; editorial comments to author 31 October 2002;

accepted for publication 17 December 2002



hiv/aids in the visual arts: applying discipline-based art education (dbae) to medical humanities

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