BORDERLINE

Stackholder | RCA Master Theses
Type | Experience and Research Design
Deliverables | Research, Metal Work, Creative Coding,

Project 3 | Overstimulation

Can we achieve this borderline by only reducing our sensory impressions, or can we also succeed this by multiplying sensory stimuli?

Because when there is too much of everything, we lose our ability to discern, we begin to suppress and become numb, which causes us to stop perceiving. Many would classify this experience as violent and it is. So I designed a gradual rise and controlled overstimulation that helps us to cross this extrem barrier. I divided this journey into three steps: the introduction, the dissolution and the overstimulation.

Outcome

In a sound and light experiment, this understanding was put into practice. A new mirror was developed that emits light pulses synchronously with the sound experience.

In complete darkness, the spectator embarks on the immersive vivid journey into nothingness. Flashes of light tear apart the spectator’s gaze into the black mirror until the light entirely envelops the viewer. 

The mirror image distorts due to the continual fluctuation between light and dark. Our eyes are unable to grasp the reflection in the mirror. Our self-perception vanishes in the interaction of seeing and hearing, and we disintegrate sensuously. Waiting for the peak to finally let us fall into nothingness.