2013 © Vivian Ostrovsky
The typically Western notion of “we’re taking drugs” just reflects the delusions of power with which we approach fellow beings that are superior to us. I don’t take drugs, the drugs take me with them. And it’s not my decision whether I am swept along by it or not, but I can decide what level of humility I display toward it.
But what characterizes these people who defy norms, who disregard conventional boundaries, institutionalized norms, and accepted reward and evaluation systems – people who, in fact, not only view conventional boundaries as ridiculous but do not see boundaries to start with?
The process of slipping into dizzying freefall, of sliding into uncertainty, becoming stuck, losing one’s way, giving up are as much actions as occurrences, both active and passive. Dizziness is a midway state at the point where everything and nothing seems possible, where certainty and uncertainty are in superposition, marked by an increasing loss of control.
The workshop will shed new light on disorientation and on how film artists throughout history use (optical) disorientation and confusion as a paradigm in their work. What can be gained by losing one’s grip, by simply letting go? What pictures arise with dizziness?