we are already history, and we don´t know it

In we are already history, and we don’t know it, the artist Dagmar Schürrer uses the brain as the central subject of her latest work. Within a media installation, three video works open up digital image worlds that inspect the nature and function of the central organ of our nervous system.

While a double projection mirrored in the centre refers to both hemispheres of the brain and the perceptual psychological processes, the representations of two screens are expanded and multiplied by different AR applications. The virtual augmentations penetrate the physical space and invite the visitors to an active, spatial contemplation. The result is a work experience between materiality and immateriality that makes us aware of the brain as an object and its internal processes.

For the digital works, Schürrer assembles the abstract with the figurative in a typical manner and creates immersion spaces that oscillate between the physical and virtual spheres. Animated images of the brain and idealised representations of humans are superimposed on abstracted patterns reminiscent of human cell and neuron structures as well as electronic wiring. These image sequences are interrupted by hypnotic tunnel journeys that draw the viewer deeper into the artist’s work. Atmospheric sounds and voice overs create a consciousness-stimulating atmosphere.

Dagmar Schürrer creates a poetic meditation space. In a contemplative way, it evokes a reflection on the brain as a constitutive component of our being and makes us aware of it. In doing so, the artist establishes analogies between the organ and contemporary technologies, which are mirrored, as it were, in the sentences of the voiceovers. The statements expand the moving image and depict the complexity as well as the relation of both apparatuses in order to approach the essence of their function and to clarify their similarity as well as their interrelation.

In the (post-)digital age, technology becomes a mirror of our self and our society. It imitates the complex processes of the brain that shape our behaviour and are subject to the progressive developments that at the same time shape them. In this juxtaposition, we are confronted with the questions of our (conscious) being and our time. What makes us who we are and what role does technology play in this? What kind of reflection is created in the new media and what do they say about our consciousness of the brain? What should we do with our brain?
Text by Peggy Schoenegge


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2021, moving image with sound and
Augmented Reality application,
05:35 min
Installation varies.