The operation room lights shine brightly in four surgical theatres. The class is connected remotely in this simultaneous surgical lesson. The teacher calls for the instruments needed: “the blade!”. Four multicoloured gloves in four different screens pick up sharp instruments – wait, are they kitchen knives? “Tweezers!” Are they eyelash curlers? The surgery continues, virtually, synchronically, the screens focus on the body part being operated on. Until the bizarre last step, when the surgeons put down their instruments and pick up a knife and fork…and diagnose the edible bodies in front of them by taste. This is a Zoom surgery class by the Citizen Surgery Collective, an interdisciplinary practice-based research group consisting of artists, critical posthumanists and anthropologists. Their work concerns surgical literacy, sensory skills acquisition, simulation, and the relationship between (non)human animal bodies and food.
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