Permanent distraction and compulsive habits disturb our experience of the current moment.
With our smartphone, we can observe the overarching impacts of digitalization, from simple daily tasks to intimate situations with our families and friends. Hiding behind the screen provides a certain comfort which leads to superficial online relationships. The term “curated self“ describes the opportunity to choose how we want to appear and affect our environment.
Out of this cosiness, compulsive habits can arise which keep us from fully experiencing our life and living in the moment.
Therefore I designed two boxes.
As the actual exhibition piece is inside the box and has to be recorded to be seen, the visitor is forced to give away and lose sight of his own smart phone. An instruction leads the visitor to fix the phone on the intended holder and asks to start a selfie video. By cranking the phone through the box it will record the inside.
The video material gained from the inside of the box is perfect footage to be spread online. However, the information gained from it confronts the visitor with his own weaknesses. An inner conflict occurs between the hunt for likes and the waiver of permanent participation on Social Media.
Vienna Biennale, MAK 2017