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Dr.Corona Online is an interactive online-\work. Dr.Corona refers to the popular column Dr.Co Mailbox in The Family Doctor, a highly subscribed magazine since the last century in China. Dr.Co is a column run by top experts and professors from various hospitals across China. Not long ago, The Family Doctor would receive thousands of letters from fans every month. Columnists’ collective professional medical knowledge then is characterized by a single virtual figure, Dr.Co, who responds and diagnoses readers physical and mental conditions described in their letters. Within the Q&A section of this column, an enormous amount of obscure problems came into light. Some are related to conditions socially shameful or embarrassing. So Dr.Co became the popular icon and a spiritual support for a fascinating pool of storytellers.
Dr.Corona alludes to the term ‘coronavirus’. However, Dr.Corona is not a virus, nor a real human being; it is an artificial-intelligence-doctor, answering and solving the problems that may have caused by the coronavirus. Its corpus comes from the headlines on the internet, the discussions and tweets on social media, as well as the widely spread motivational quotes, a.k.a. the ‘chicken soup quotes’. Would like to be diagnosed by Dr.Corona? ‘Patients’ will receive a sort of a Prozac, in the way of compassionate drug use, which is not necessarily accurate to the patients’ symptoms. By asking questions on the project page, users will get a prescription that generated by this AI doctor. Users may also want to share the prescription on their social media in order to get a second opinion, which is always crucial.
This work is co-commissioned by Chronus Art Center (Shanghai), Art Center Nabi (Seoul) and Rhizome of the New Museum (New York).
《柯大夫在线》是一件网络互动作品。“柯大夫”的名字来源于中国上世纪订阅量极高的健康杂志《家庭医生》，“柯大夫信箱”是其中备受欢迎的专栏。“柯大夫”团队由全国各大医院的顶尖专家、教授组成，杂志社每个月都会收到上万封热情读者的来信。虚拟人物“柯大夫”在栏目中用专业的医学知识解答读者身心方面的疑难杂症，其中大量隐秘且难以在现实中启齿的疑问构成了一部当代人精神生活的故事会。
柯大夫的英文发音（Dr.Corona）与新型冠状病毒（coronavirus）读音相近，但它既不是病毒，也非真人，而是一位人工智能医生，为当下新型冠状病毒所造成的疑问和困惑排忧解难。它的语料来源于互联网上的新闻，社交媒体上的讨论和广为流传的网络“心灵鸡汤”。事实上，它未必能给提问患者的症候带来准确的解决方案，更多是作为“同情用药”的一副百忧解。在网站页面提问便可以获得柯大夫开具的“处方”，在听取柯大夫意见的同时，也可以把疑问和答案分享给朋友，获取至关重要的第二医疗建议（second opinion）。
该作品由新时线媒体艺术中心（上海）、那比艺术中心（首尔）、新美术馆Rhizome（纽约）联合委约创作.
Programming: Vytas Jankauskas
Web design: Beio
Project Consultant: BI Xin
Programming Consultant: Claire Glanois