Through the course of his life media artist Quintus Glerum has tried to get a better understanding of himself by mirroring his image to that of machines. While our tools are created for a specific purpose, we do not have the same luxury. Why do I act the way I do? What does it mean to be human and why am I bothering myself with these questions? Getting strangled in endless streams of recurring questions formed around human behavior caused him to create hypothetical situations that both break down and reflect on his own sense of reality. He has come to perceive this as an act of escapism. This does not come as a surprise, due to his background in animated film. This field in particular is often used by people that feel an urge to escape reality.
Slowness is a small series of works that reflect on the urge of escapism by portraying life through a collection of simulations. Inspired by the work of Milan Kundera, Quintus attempts to grasp the existential dread of the mundane by making video compositions that bridge dull sceneries with childish fantasy. To amplify the ‘fakeness’ of these worlds, the screens are made transparent to make the inside of the screen an intricate part of the composition. While the screen represents a doorway for endless virtual possibilities, it becomes tactile again by the visible hardware necessary to keep the simulation running.
