ABSTRACT
This chapter probes alternate spaces for practicing cultural analysis, both materially and discursively. Departing from Clifford Geertz’s understanding of thick description, and following Lauren Berlant’s call for infrastructural analysis, I narrate my inter-institutional travels into an artistic research project in the emergency department of a major hospital in Amsterdam. Tracing the initial phases of the project, involving burnout, collaboration, administrative hassles, and conceptual translations, I underscore the lifeworlds of the project that do not necessarily resonate discursively. Attending to infrastructural protocols, concepts, and practices that solidify forms of engagement in cultural analysis, I argue, are necessary in order to address the procedural as it takes shape and loosen up taxing or confining forms of investment.
