Hyperconnected
Mascha Naumova, Berlin
17:00 min, 4K, color, sound 2023
The hallmark of the era in which we live is fluidity. Constant “being in flux”, constant changes, the inability to fix anything. The changes have probably never been as all-encompassing as they are now; they affect the political sphere with abrupt, brutal changes such as the wars in Europe and the Middle East, they affect the social level, which is affected less and less by desired transformation processes and more and more often by shock-like, unpredictable or undesirable changes, and they ultimately affect our immediate environment, in which family and private relationships are becoming increasingly distant in space and time.
These comprehensive change processes experience an acceleration that was previously not thought possible thanks to digital over-networking. The absence of physical communication is the norm, face-to-face encounters and intimacy are no longer necessary. And the boundaries between the “I” and the environment are also changing rapidly. The “I” as the sum of body and psyche, which could once be viewed as a separate, organic structure, must now coexist with the digital world. Our understanding of self, identity and consciousness is therefore subject to a fundamental change, which is now about to accelerate in previously unimagined ways due to artificial intelligence - with an uncertain goal.
At the end of the increasingly fluid society and digital over-communication is the dissolution of emotional bonds such as family, friendships, love relationships - the theme of the video installation "HYPERCONNECTED".
In video portraits of 12 participants, Mascha Naumova metaphorically describes the paradigm of the new society in which familiar connections no longer apply. To do this, 6 men and 6 women of different ages with different statuses are randomly selected. Their job is to rip seams - on their own clothes and on someone else's clothes. This mechanical act poetically symbolizes the painful severing of the bonds we have formed throughout our lives. With the sculptural and reduced character of the video installation, the artist is also reminiscent of Renaissance frescoes, also a time of radical individualization.
Nik: "For me taking part in this performance was exciting, and the biggest challenge was to sit still and just look at the camera for the portrait. We had to think about our breakups at this time, but not move. For me personally, memories of my breakups are traumatic and trigger such pain that it is natural for my body to move to deal with it. The topic of this work is very close to me, so I felt at my place taking part in it. Of course, breakups of long relationships are painful for, probably, almost everyone, but for me the breakups of short ones are worse. Because so much energy is put into starting the communication and so much anxiety is felt in the beginning (it's so for me, as a neurodivergent person), if it lasts only a couple of weeks it leaves me totally drained. Longer relationships at least leave some happy memories. Short ones leave only scars. I don't understand the tendency to radical individualisation. For me relationships matter above all, but I am in peace with the idea that some, even most of them are supposed to last not all life, but only a couple of years. What I can not understand and find normal though it's the 3-6 weeks relationships. That already looks like consumerist position towards other people."