Exhibition
Film
November 23, 2024
January 26, 2025

CONSCIOUSNESS

by
Photo: Synnøve Sizou G. Wetten

CONSCIOUSNESS speculates over future characters encountering expanded realities. Existential questions arise when the boundaries between biology and technology are erased.

The future characters in Wetten's new film CONSCIOUSNESS investigate each other in different spheres, where an unclear distinction emerges between who represents humans, humanoids and potential avatars. Programmed sensory experiences trigger underlying existential questions; What might it be that we do not 'see', but that touches us at the most fundamental level? What is a 'self'? What is presence?

Mirroring is a recurrent theme in the film. Mirror neurons in the brain are essential neurological actors, which awaken and stimulate empathy and identification. Essentially, mirror neurons react to actions we observe in others. These nerve cells exhibit the same behaviour as when we actually recreate the same action ourselves. How will technological mirror images change biological evolution?

The future characters in CONSCIOUSNESS are exposed to subliminal influence; stimuli of such short duration or intensity that they are physically impossible to perceive consciously, but which nevertheless appear to have an impact on how the characters act.

Curated by Julie Lillelien Porter. Supported by Arts Council Norway and Kunstsentrene i Norge (KiN).