the Creature of Addiction

Robots and Mental State - V2

Here in the second section I found myself inspired by Wenxuan's Creature of Paranoid Schizophrenia.

I found the concept of her creature to be very interesting in the way that it deals with something mental instead of something physical. Something we cannot 'see' the way we can see somebody playing music or break an arm. And something which seems very far from the general idea you get in your head when thinking about a robot.


The Creature of Paranoid Schizophrenia deals with the mental part of being a human - and a very small, and to many people, quite unknown part of it. It is only few people who experience the feeling of Paranoid Schizophrenia. But I like the idea of transferring this mental state to a robot/creature - and in that way maybe make it more understandable to the people who don't know the feeling of this mental state.

Why and where to?

This brought me to the idea of exploring and expanding the concept of Creatures with mental conditions. A group of Creatures which works - both to give an 'image' of how the specific condition 'looks' and to try and make people understand it.


Exhibition - THE CREATURES OF THE HEAD

The purpose of this exhibition is to try and create an understanding of how people with different mental conditions experience the world - and the mental state they find themselves in.


The Creatures are visualizations of these states and feelings.

THE CREATURE OF ADDICTION

Watch the creature and experience how it shows the different stages of addiction


The stages of addiction

The Loss of Control

Isolation and Self-loathing

A Need-hate Relationship

Fleeting Pleasure

Intense Craving


// Steve Rose, PhD, addiction counsellor and former academic researcher, Media Tech student Helena KJ and the museum of AI
// 2022