In 1957 the doctor Louis R. Groote made a speech in which he said that some situations foster illness and threaten one's health. Situations like engine noise, exhaust fumes, population density, the lack of one's own space, the huge amount of artificial light and many other factors threaten physical health. Man's psyche is under pressure for instance to reduce his personality to the lowest common denominator, to bring needs into line, resulting in an increase in the number of neuroses. From the start, this text sets the tone: together with images that look like corroded film images of a lecture, the text presents associations with past times. The sound and the black-and-white images of city situations, wave patterns and animations make reference to a genuine world and the accompanying consequences. For although on the one hand everything seems to be makeable, people seem to have little idea how much everything is influenced by this thought: the man walks through a long corridor and the image of the corridor changes while he is walking through it. Then the image changes from technical to organic constructions and Daxl calls on us to be sceptical. The makeability of the world is for him not only about buildings and cars, but also about genetic manipulation, food production and the human body. Manipulation also raises questions about what the nucleus of a body, a person or a thought is, what individual and what general human characteristics are: an environment changes under influence of man just as man changes under the influence of his environment. How the nucleus of man changes in this remains the question, just as who will be in the best situation in the end and in the best shape to survive and not incur all sorts of illnesses. Hence the question Stelarc formulated: "whether remaining human is any longer an advantage".
– Carla Hoekendijk |
Music: Mona Mur
Quotes: Louis R. Groote, Dr Tyrell & The Replicants, Stelarc
Assistants: Ingeborg Fülepp, Studio für Electroakustische Musik Akademie für Kunste, Berlin
Heiko Daxl, 1957, Oldenburg (Germany)
Lives and works in Berlin (Germany) en Zagreb (Croatia)
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