Images

...theoretically we know it: an image is not an unquestionable guarantor of past reality.
Images unfold their own dynamics.

 

The project Riding the Storm explores this web of pitfalls, challenges, promises and hopes of our "postmodern" life. One particularly treacherous promise is the promise of the images we have been presented with for generations.

The romantic image of the apocalypse from the 1970s has not succeeded in holding up in the flood of events of recent years. But the events became a flood of data.

And we thought they were just images.

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We are deeply stuck in dependencies and patterns. Freedom looks different.

Visual information is assigned to different levels in the brain according to its relevance for survival. Important, fast-moving information goes directly to the amygdala, a part of the brain that is responsible for recognising danger, among other things. Here, the information is processed quickly, compared with emotions and, in the event of danger, the vital decision is made in a fraction of a second: Fight or run away (or, as the more familiar English expression puts it: fight or flight). The observer is in a state of highest emotional tension; long reflection is simply not possible.

...is simply not possible...

But in order to be able to act in a future-oriented way, it is necessary to deal with the issues, to understand the connections. Only then can necessary, sustainable decisions be made.
A first step of resistance is therefore reflection, research, knowledge accumulation. The term information pathology