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—Carl-Johan Rosén

Title
Looking for Bird Overlooking Depth

Medium(s) / Material(s)
Video with sound, five minutes long (original format: 1280 x 720p).

Technique(s)
Video camera, custom video editing software written in C++.

Concept
A noise, a perceptual sensation of an unknown might be a thrill. It might be pain. Both are results of the uncertainty of what we are experiencing. The limbo of not being certain, of being in fantasy, of having space enough to reflect on what is between our expectations and what our bodies tell us about the world. Having a brand new sensory ability is bound to be dramatic. The world we know will change drastically, permanently.

The gap between experience and reality, between what you imagine the world to be like and what it is actually like, is permanent but in continuous transformation. Widening, narrowing. But the gap will always be there. Never closing.

The glitch is a name for an accidental misinterpretation when parsing incoming information. When data arrives in wrong order or is suddenly swapped for other data, the handler acts unexpectedly, creatively. Doing what we did not imagine possible. Surprisingly.

The gap / glitch / crack / hack / explosion is present here. Deep in the city, nervous system midnight explosions are undermining the ground on which we rest. People say parts of the earth’s surface have already been drawn down by gravity. But from where we can go, the abyss is nowhere to be seen. Blocked from our senses. All moves south.

The space between the city and the depth is narrowing. But the city is numb. It is constantly moving. Moving out of range. Hiding (it). And we can do nothing else. We maintain the position of uncertainty, the imaginative space, still undecided on what to feel when the ground falls. Hoping for this great unknown, for the sudden appearance of a language. Allowing pain and thrill intertwined.

This video is an investigative strand of a larger research effort on understanding what it’s like to see the world through a non-human, non-organic body. Digital beings, with sensors different from ours, potentially experience the world in other ways. This is an attempt to find a language to share experiences.

Bio
With a background in both engineering and arts, Carl-Johan Rosén studies the relationship between human and digital beings. A digital being is an electronic-digital construct, either physical or virtual, but with the ability to perceive the environment in which it lives closely entangled with humans. What is it like to experience the world through a radically different set of sensors than the human body? And what languages can be used to share these potential experiences between humans and digital beings? Based in Stockholm, Rosén pursues a B.A. in Fine Art at Konstfack.

Artist info
www.carljohanrosen.com