In a single day, the average adult human being makes approximately 35,000 decisions. Whether large or small in terms of significance, these choices each carry their own set of potential consequences. Perhaps most of us can agree that we continuously put our best efforts into avoiding consequences that are particularly negative. However, the metaphorical line that differentiates the positive outcomes from the negative ones remains ambiguous and undefined.
I feel that in order to understand just how delicately we all maneuver through our lives, direct confrontation with this distinguishing “line” is necessary. A Sensory Experience serves as the catalyst for this dispute.
To engage in this encounter, I have first crafted a series of 13 images that represents the overwhelming uncertainty that looms over us every time we make a decision. The series begins with what seems to be a couple of conventional, natural landscapes; as we move further into the perceived narrative, implications of human-made technology and architecture penetrate the once primitive environments. Are we responsible for our own fear? Aesthetically, the images abstract mundane landscapes by harnessing uncanny qualities of light and color.
To further emphasize the sense of dispute with the “line”, the images are presented in a slideshow/video format on a now-vintage television set, meant to be viewed individually within an enigmatic room-like structure comprised of dark, nondescript surfaces. Layered beneath the visuals are a collection of sounds, with the majority of them being infrasounds - very low frequencies that have been scientifically proven to infiltrate our senses by increasing heart rate, elevating feelings of anxiety, and inducing nausea. Whether one is planned in their decision making or conversely flippant, we maneuver through choices either anticipating the consequences, or facing them after the fact. In other words, the consequences of our actions are inescapable.
A Sensory Experience, as a whole, acts as the first step in encouraging viewers to assess their personal relationships with their decision making. Furthermore, viewers may ask themselves why anxiety permeates through their choices. Did we, as a race, miss the opportunity to remain in a state of peace? Has modern society hindered our ability to truly trust ourselves?
The project speaks to a collective experience, but one that is defined individually; my job, as an artist, is finished once people exit the exhibition. Anything that follows is in their hands.
