Experience for One Head
Experience for One Head is a triptych of video performances developed as a contemporary dialogue with the practice of Józef Robakowski, particularly his work Exercise for Two Hands. In his early camera-based works, Robakowski transferred authorship from the artist to the analogue camera, treating it as an autonomous bio-mechanical subject. In this project, I revisit this gesture within the context of immersive and virtual technologies, where the relationship between the body, perception, and the apparatus is further reconfigured.
Each of the three works is based on a confrontation between bodily movement and mediated perception. In the first performance, holding two tablets, I attempt to simultaneously engage with two independent spherical 360-degree video recordings. This action develops the idea of “detaching the camera from the eye” and tests the limits of coordination, attention, and control. The body is forced to respond to visual inputs that cannot be synchronized within a single field of vision.
The second work, inspired by I Am Walking, involves moving along escalators while holding a 360-degree camera. The recorded image can later be experienced by the viewer through a VR headset. Counting steps becomes an attempt to maintain rhythm and orientation; however, the action reveals a discrepancy between the bodily experience of movement and its subsequent immersive visual perception. The unattainability of the goal and the repetitive nature of the gesture expose the tension between intentional action and the conditions imposed by mediated imagery.
In the third performance, I record spherical videos of different routes. Subsequently attempt to re-enact them in physical space by following the previously recorded image. Although the routes are identical, the lack of direct coupling between the image and the surrounding environment leads to a gradual loss of synchronization. The body loses orientation, and movement reveals its dependence on a mediated visual instruction.
Each performance exposes tensions between the body, the image, and technology, in which authorship, presence, and perception remain in a constant state of negotiation. The camera and immersive systems do not function as neutral tools, but as active structures organizing experience. The project extends the questions posed by Robakowski into the field of contemporary immersive media, where the boundaries between action, its recording, and perception become increasingly fragmented.