04:40

a/v work shown on vr glasses at "vielfalter" exhibition at kunsthaus potsdam 2023

for 04:40 I (mis)used the double lens effect of the vr-glasses to represent a moment of perceptual distortion. perceptual processing disorders can be psychopatholocially classified under the term ‚dissociation‘. however, dissociation as a protective mechanism can also be understood as a general societal phenomenon: every day we separate ourselves from a world flooded with crises for self-protection, mostly using and creating virtual realities. through artistic abstraction, these individual and collective experiences of dissociation can be juxtaposed.

as an audio-visual translation of a dissociative process, this vr-work creates a special perceptive experience for recipients. the brain receives two individual images through each lens. if one of them is altered or even two completely different images are shown, it becomes difficult for the brain to combine the two images into one picture. the perceptive effect and the strain that this process produces is close to the feeling that can be experienced during dissociative statuses. through this immersive and very individual effect that the vr video has on each brain, there is the possibility to reflect on one's own experiences in dealing with inner and outer crises. the work is thus intends to put dissociative statuses outside the frame of „illness“ and thereby contribute to destigmatization processes towards so called mental illnesses, ultimately questioning normative concepts of brain and perceptive functions at all.