The aim of this paper is the contemplation of the mineness-otherness relation of being triggered by the onset of serious and chronic illness. The phenomenological theories of Frederick Svenaeus and Martin Heidegger bring to light a form of otherness (alienation) experienced with illness and allow one to question the boundaries of flesh in relation to homelessness and exile. My study is directed towards analysing this experience and finding ways of overcoming such boundaries in an effort to reach out for the suffering other through the process of empathy. The conceptual framework lies embedded in the process of reflection, relation and revelation by which the ill person encounters the self and seeks to reveal new meaning in life. Considering the body in illness as being in a state of internal war, an audio-visual tool called ‘Sanctuary’ was designed to serve the ill person’s narrative. As a mobile space that can be consumed in wards or clinics, it presents a bunker experience which magnifies one’s presence and places one’s whole body in the context of a solitary shelter whilst being assailed. The tool allows the viewer to look out onto digital artwork created as a metaphor of the self.peer-reviewe
