Subject: emotions encoded

“Subject: emotions encoded”, an interactive computer installation that presents: a model of communication between two strangers meeting online. In this “tele-romantic” dialogue, the emotional intensity of the exchange is accentuated by a computer-generated butterfly of the genus Morpho. A docu drama based on the artist’s own experiences in the internet’s text-based virtual worlds. “Subject: emotions encoded” considers the complexity of human relationships through the wires, from the exciting initial encounters to the conflicts that inevitably arise between physical and virtual reality. “Formerly, I dreamed I was a butterfly flying around and enjoying itself. I did not know that I was Chuangtse. Suddenly I awoke and was Chuangtse again. I did not know whether it was Chuangtse dreaming that he was a butterfly, or a butterfly now dreaming it was Chuangtse.” Thereafter Chuangtse, the Taoist philosopher from ancient China, asked himself: “Am I a man who dreamed of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming myself to be a man?”