But the key work for understanding the origins of my interests is still the
Installation of experience (2011). It is a room with an automatic door at the entrance, which closes each time someone comes in, so people are trapped there for an unknown amount of time with no instructions for how to get out.
✕The way to get out of the room is very simple but far from being obvious. You should do nothing; or, in other words, you should give up to get out. But of course many people use their previous experience and try to find an interface or try anything that can help: moving hands around, sitting or jumping, switching all the switchers they can reach and asking for help from passers-by.
It’s also important that observers can watch what people do inside and make them uncomfortable: it’s much harder to give up if people are watching what you do.
I personally was interested in another group of people who actively resist the situation, do not accept the rules and force the doors to open: the doors were installed in such a way that this was possible.
Slide 01 of 10. Visitors enter the room
Slide 02 of 10. Visitors recognize the camera and start visually interact with it’s view
Slide 03 of 10. Visitors jump and look on a screen
Slide 04 of 10. Visitors try to attract people from outside to get some help
Slide 05 of 10. Visitors recognise door sensor and interact with it
Slide 06 of 10. Visitors try to interact with all electronics they found
Slide 07 of 10. Visitors interact with people from outside
Slide 08 of 10. Visitors give up for a short period of time slightly less than 30 seconds
Slide 09 of 10. Visitors try to escape by force
Slide 10 of 10. Visitors give up and wait
The project was made in 2011 during the project “Infusion” by
Laboratoria Art & Science Space in collaboration with the neuroscientist Olga Svarnik. She is working on the problem of omitting existing experience when it doesn’t work anymore. It was a very promising experience to work with her.