Interactive installation
dimension variable,
2012
Unstable Empathy is a collaborative experience in which cooperation, entanglement, and consciousness are perceived directly at a physiological level.
It creates an intimate environment continuously re‑mediated in real time by the neural activity of two participants, who must constantly negotiate and recalibrate their empathic state.
At the start of each session, EEG headsets are placed on the participants, seated face‑to‑face in complete darkness.
The “activation state” of each person is translated into a rhythmic sonic signal that can be heard only by the other. As they listen, adjust, and attempt to synchronize their rhythms, the participants gradually reveal a shared visual field in which their physiognomies merge, allowing them to experience themselves as a single, hybrid entity.
This visual convergence, however, destabilizes the balance again, pushing them out of sync. The experience invites the participants to continually re‑attune, maintaining a delicate equilibrium between their sensory and emotional states
a project by Mattia Casalegno and Enzo Varriale premiered at TransJourney Festival 2012 Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, TW special thanks to CAT - Center for Arts and Technology at TNUA, Taipei EEG technology by Emotiv inc.
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