Oxymoron

How do we interact with digital imagery?

Do we see more when we see more?

What does perceiving digital imagery do to us in contrast to physical life perceptions?

The silent installation investigates possible layers of interaction between the digital and physical. It plays with the coincidence and observed details to create a visual experiment.

Oxymoron, 2021, 6 min projection loop, ABK Entrance Hall, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Oxymoron?

Never before has the human eye seen so much of the world; and spaces are not defined by physicality anymore. Digitally perceived spaces (worlds) are steadily playing a bigger role in current times. When it seems that almost everything is captured on video and is possible to be perceived digitally, what value does that add or take away from human lives?

From a screen you cannot perceive the same information as from real life and you barely interact. You don’t touch, smell, feel and hear as in physical reality. Have we started to pay less attention to certain physical perceptions, influences and stimulations? Or does the digital and virtual extension of our perception may lead to better values and new opportunities?

In a playful way I am exploring layers where an overlap (digital-physical) is possible through physical interaction with a video projection and its placement in a physical space. Filmed textures, surfaces, shapes and movements of my environment build the basis for a black and white video. Performative body movements interact with this projected video footage, bridging an interface between the physical and digital layer of the work. My intuitive performance in front of the projection is filmed, cut, edited, and then projected as a final video in real space.

The loop does not feed expectations from the viewer to have a beginning and end. Instead, it is about the relationship between the artwork and the viewer. The projected video in an architectural space creates an interaction with the physical environment. Furthermore, not everyone may want to watch it, same as in everyday life where an uncountable amount of images, videos and stories is put towards everyone.