Foldings
2018

Walk

Dimension Varies

Custom Distorsion Goggles, Noise-Cancelling Headphones, Custom Microphones, Amplifier, Computer, Audio Interface, Battery Pack

Custom-made goggles together with a pair of headphones are handed to the visitor. Wearing them while moving around in a public space, they at first perceive the environmental sound normally, but their vision is distorted, doubled and tinted in a light pink through the goggles. As time passes, their audition slowly changes as well. First, they hear the left and right inputs are reversed, then delayed, and finally multiple delayed copies of the surrounding sound are perceived. The multiplication of the environmental sound affects the vision, so that one starts to see their environment doubled, tripled, and quadrupled. After a while the sound snaps back to how it was and the loop of effects restarts. This time, the subject will be slightly adjusted to the situation, with the perceptual system compensating for the distortions. The longer the loop is experienced, the more adjustment takes place. After going through the effects multiple times, the subject eventually faces a situation where the perceptual system needs to adjust to what used to be normal. Even though it may last only a few seconds or even longer, the subject now experiences the usual daily surrounding differently.