'Emotion' used to mark the insurmountable border between a man and a machine. Only in a distant future (science fiction, usually) machines were able to be intertwined with emotions. Actually, in real life, emotions are tracked, transmitted and mediated by machines. The brand new CCCS, Centre For Contemporary Culture Centre La Strozzina, will be inaugurated on November 29 with the exhibition Emotional Sytems, contemporary art between emotion and reason. The challenging topic is targeting one of the unresolved problem in the creation/perception of an artwork also in the neurological perspective. The exhibition si curated by Martin Steinhoff and Franziska Nori (the latter curated landmark exhibitions in the recent years like 'I Love You' or 'adonnam.mp3', and now has been appointed as CCCS project director). In the very tradition of Nori's curating style, the program includes an art education program, a series of lectures/performances and a catalogue with different related theories and essays. Among the works included, immersed in a dark room, there's the amazing video installation 'Observance' by Bill Viola, able to affect every person who suffered a significant loss in his life with a natural flow of empathy; 'Emotional Mapping' by Christian Nold, who detects skin tension and perspiration of participating people walking in the city, visualizing then the data on mapping systems like Google Maps; 'The Subjectivisation of Repetition' by Yves Netzhammer, in his usual style of shaping abstract 3D human bodies that act, morphs and join other known or abstract forms in a continuous stream of astonishment, delight and wondering; 'Mechanics of Emotions' by Maurice Benayoun, crossing internet search data with its geographical origin, then rendering such a user's emotional status on a 3D global map made by words in real time; 'Air/Aire' by Teresa Margolles, instead is able to deeply play with the ambiguity of objects and how they are perceived in specific contexts. She uses an air conditioner and steam from water taken from the laboratories in the municipal mortuary in Mexico City after it was used to wash unidentified corpses being prepared for autopsy. The consequent triggered visitor awareness becomes an unavoidable part of the work. So can art induce real discontinuity in blood pressure, changing the state of mind, triggering sudden recalls from the past and shed lights or shadows in your daily vision? Take a tour of this exhibition and then ask yourself this question again.
http://www.neural.it/art/2007/11/emotional_sytems_contemporary.phtml