Tereza Darmovzalová, Filip Hauer, Marek Hlaváč, Tomáš Kajánek, host: Vít Bohal

Curator: Marek Hlaváč

PROJEKT › RELATIVITY 2020 

The exhibition was closed for the public due to the state of emergency associated with the pandemic situation from 12 March to 11 May 2020.

Extended until July 5, 2020.

Dreams do not know the difference between what’s real and what’s not – nor will they admit to one. This exhibition uses dreams as a metaphor for a state in which reality and fiction become indistinguishable; a state in which we are collectively dreamt, aided by contemporary technology.

Being Dreamt. The internet world of viral videos makes its way into reality, becoming embodied in its users. The simulation predicts reality. Reality becomes a dream. Dream work. The worker accepts the game’s decision and disposes of their own moral positions. A reality created by Google’s search and recommend algorithm. Resynthesis and automatic imitation carried out by artificial intelligence. However, dream logic can also be actively accepted as a strategy to be used within various power structures. A hypnotic induction of a feeling of sadness that is symptomatic of our time but also suppressed.

Tomáš Kajánek explores how user-created internet content uncovers certain systems of society, specifically how fear and irrationality are embodied in particular types of YouTube videos, which then have a retroactive effect on reality. In his video installation, the internet world of viral videos infects reality and becomes incarnate in its users. Dreams become reality. The Morgellons disease – a psychosomatic parasitic skin condition – is spread only via YouTube and its development is reminiscent of body horror films.

Tomáš’s second work, collates images from YouTube videos presenting various exercises of mass catastrophes organised by public law enforcement agencies or private companies offering experience courses. With the aid of film make-up and elements of artistic fiction, dramatic reconstructions of events that never happened are created. The extreme fear and anxiety of society are embodied in the phantasm of an ideal terrorist attack or traffic accident. 

In Filip Hauer’s installation Dreaming About Work 0.1, reality becomes a dream. The interactive computer simulation takes a critical stance towards our societal conception of work and labour hours.  The game, inspired by military training materials, simulates a working day, spread over eight hours. The player/worker repeats a mechanical activity which rids them of their cognitive perception, creating a psychological space which breaks up their individuality. The player/worker loses any conception of their own personality and enters a semi-lucid state in which they accept the game’s decisions and dispose of their own moral positions.

Marek Hlaváč’s sound installation fft dreaming references the creation of new realities in the activity of digital algorithic processes. The other works in the exhibition are dreamt in resynthesis, automatic transformation, and artificial intelligence imitation. Sonic representations of fragments of the other works are analysed using an fft algorithm, dreamt using Google’s search and recommend algorithm, similar to machine learning and the ensuing automatic imitation. The work blurs the edges between recording and synthesis, between data storage and data creation.

Tereza Darmovzalová Induction of Sadness can serve as a key to lucid dreaming – dream logic can be actively accepted as a strategy for acting within the strategies of power structures. The title of the video refers to the experimental psychological method used to induce emotions. In this case, these are feelings which need to be experienced but which we hide under the surface due to how busy we are, due to societal conventions, gender stereotypes, and a number of other reasons symptomatic of the time and space in which we live.

Vít Bohal, theorist and a member of the Diffractions Collective, complements the topic of the exhibition with his text on the medium of Tarot cards as prototypes or analogies for contemporary technologies.

Interview about the exhibition:

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