The exquisite corpse or the exquisite cadaver (adapted from the French term “cadavre exquis”) was invented by the Surrealists to reflect their delight in games, chance and the Freudian-based basis of the uncontrolled aspects of artistic production. It would be expected that the exquisite corpse creationist approach results in chaotic and meaningful pieces. However, these pieces with strange combinations could provide new views and interpretations of possible real situations. These features support that the exquisite corpse has not disappeared and can serve to inspire the creativity of scientists. The collaborations between science and art support and encourage the development of new methodological approaches to inspire scientists viewing previously unexplored properties when addressing scientific challenges. Herein, both scientists and artists participated when building the exquisite corpse. Then, the author put all pieces together randomly to build the exquisite corpse following a variant of the Surrealistic protocol and used the different exquisite corpse as an inspiration to ask questions that may advance research in the area of infectious diseases with emphasis on COVID-19.

Peer reviewed