BELIEF SYSTEMS

source: berndhopfengaertnernet

BELIEF SYSTEMS
Facial micro expressions last less than a second and are almost impossible to control. They are hard wired to the emotional activity in the brain which can be easily captured using specially developed technological devices. Free will is now in question as the science exposes decision-making as an emotional process rather than a rational one. This ability to read emotions technologically result in a society obsessed with their emotional reactions. Emotions, convictions and beliefs which usually remain hidden, now become a public matter. “Belief systems” is a video scenario about a society that responds to the challenges of modern neuroscience by embracing these technological possibilities to read, evaluate and alter peoples behaviours and emotions.
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source: berndhopfengaertnernet

I observe scientific concepts and ideas, current technical developments and cultural phenomena. My interest lies in the interdependencies of these fields and the spaces of possibility spanning between them. My work is about designing these spaces by creating tangible and more or less concrete artifacts: stories, videos and objects. By imagining the possible, the speculative, the non-existent (to quote an old industrial band: what is, is, what is not, is possible), Art and Design can contribute to a broader discourse in a way that is not accessible by purely analytical means. I’m interested in Design as an interdisciplinary intermediary, placed in-between natural science, engineering, cultural and media theory and everyday-life. My work has been exhibited, among others, at the Wellcome Trust in London, the MoMA in New York and the National Museum of China in Beijing. Parallel to my own artistic and design practise, I have worked as a lecturer at the Bauhaus-University Weimar, and I am currently teaching at F-A-S-T, an interdisciplinary Art, Science and Technology Program, a cooperation of the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden with the Technical University Dresden and the Dresden University of Technology and Economics. I live in Berlin.