Caretaker (2019)

With Caretaker, the game theater collective machina eX invites the audience on a journey into a fictional future in which a learning machine appears to revolutionize the world of medicine.

In the year 2025, a small research institute develops version 0.1 of a piece of medical software. In the process, the system detects an unexpected correlation: people who grow up in a 32-square-kilometer valley in central Germany present a 14.2 risk factor for chronic bronchitis—slightly more than chain smoking. A hope emerges in the world of medicine: Could collecting even more extensive patient data reveal far-fetched risk factors that conventional medical methods can’t detect?

A conglomerate of developers, financiers, and pharmaceutical representatives takes on the project and announces a breakthrough seven years later. In a series of test runs, Caretaker is pitted against the diagnosis and therapy methods utilized during a standard hospital visit. In most cases, Caretaker delivers superior diagnoses and treatment methods. Though complex and hard to interpret, the evidence is ultimately conclusive.

Caretaker sparks a heated public debate. The people take the federal government to task, and the government decides to do a test run of the software. In this scenario, David and Tabea are patient and doctor, but they are not supposed to have any direct contact. Over the course of the experiment, as help is offered, they see their abilities surpassed and responsibility being taken away from them.

Credit: Florian Reimann