ACTION POTENTIAL

Excerpt of a longer multi-channel installation

A work that uses photochemical film and digital video to look at how the human body interacts and adapts to changing technology and the effects this may have on human relationships. Looking specifically at the mental states of people with symptoms of ADHD and those who use chemical drugs to lubricate social/sexual interaction or “chemsex”. Both of these states multiply desire and excitement whilst denying satisfaction.

The film looks at the point at which the physical, chemical and mechanical world of machines, bodies and film grain, meets the intangible, digital world of data, pixels and online communication. Where reality meets fantasy. As more of the content of our lived experienced begins to inhabit the fragmented digital world where does that leave the reality of our bodies? Our brains reward systems evolved in a reality that requires full and prolonged physical engagement to produce a payoff. Now the power of digital communication provides external rewards on demand and chemicals are available to enhance the rewards our own bodies can create. Where does this leave one of the most powerful sources of reward we can experiance: Love?

Sections of 16mm film used in the work were hand processed and the ‘chems’ (recreational drugs) used in chemsex parties and also medication designed to counteract the symptoms of ADHD were added to the processing chemistry. This combination of different chemicals affected how the images were formed on the celluloid film.

A short digital video clip shot on someone’s mobile phone showing anonymous guys fucking is repeatedly used and broken down within the piece. The video is typical of imagery created and shared online to mobilise and organise chemsex parties. Through repetition and mirroring the imagery is rendered as a pattern. The complex symmetry references x-ray crystallography, the process used to visualise molecules (including hormones and neurotransmitters) that are too small to be seen by any lens. Repetition is a way in which meaning is both created and destroyed. The repetition has a hypnotic effect, which mirrors the experience of chemsex in both the constant review of sexualised imagery on digital platforms and the altered states induced by the chems. The use of emoji symbols also references the aesthetics of the online cruising platforms, where censored words that relate to drugs and condomless sex often represented with emojis.