Mind over matter

Last week at Open for Design, Futurefarmers posted an entry called Senseless about Crispin Jones' An Invisible Force. Their description brought me back to the BankArtLife reception in Yokohama almost exactly a year ago. Jones was showing a table alongside work by a number of other artists, all of which was kinetic and/or interactive and tactile. A constant queue of people were ready to be challenged by Painstation , the sadistically entertaining work by two German media artists, Volker Morawe and Tilman Reiff.

As with An Invisible Force, the point of Painstation is endurance against discomfort. Two players face off in a game of Pong, right hand on the controller, left hand on a sensor unit. Both players receive various distractions from the unit -- heat, whipping, electric shocks etc. As time goes on, the punishment intensifies. The first person to remove their hand from the sensor loses. The real game is who can withstand the most pain.

I lost every time. Despite the open wounds and blue welts some of the pros were sporting, with me the unit had not even escalated to the point of inflicting pain. Of course being a leftie put me at a disadvantage because the controller forced me to use my weak hand. But in truth the reason I lost was that the anticipation of the being touched by the whip made me flinch.