synthetic happiness

This installation/performance was created in collaboration with Naufus Figueroa Synthetic Happiness depicts a world in which nothing is quite real. A clear vinyl tent, useless for privacy, warmth or protection, an Astroturf campsite, electric blankets without electricity, exercise equipment replacing the Great Outdoors, and anti-depressants sewn into the sides of the tent, provide an environment through which Irene and I moved dissociated from our actions. In today's world of psychiatry, more and more emotions that were once seen as part of the spectrum of human experience are now being classified as illnesses. At what point does over-diagnosis and its accompanying drugs create a cyborg quest for perfect human happiness?

Vancouver, BC
Simon Fraser University
2003