Déjà vu is a French term to describe the feeling that one has lived through the present situation before. This connects with the concept of eternal return in which energy will continue to recur an infinite number of times. Eternal return relates to the philosophy of predeterminism in which humanity is predestined to repeat the same events over and over for all eternity. For German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, the concept of ‘eternal recurrence’ sends humans into a cyclic pattern of life and death, moving the energy from one world to another.
With is in mind ScanLAB Projects have joined forces with Swedish artistic duo Lundahl & Seitl to produce Eternal Return (2019), a composite work that uses VR technology, physical objects, text and performance. The installation consists of three intertwined digital replicas of historical buildings, that are hyper-connected to sculptures and fragmented objects. Eternal Return explores science fiction ‘not only as stories feeding the human imagination of possible future worlds not yet there but the as the insights of the mental and sensorial processes that make up a world and how they can be manipulated and resisted.’ the artists told us.
Accompanied by the science fiction novel, ‘The Memor’ by Malin Zimm, Eternal Return makes the visitor aware of their dual presence in the physical and virtual realms. The central part of Eternal Return is a digital archive of buildings, landscapes, sounds, smells and even traces of people. Following the concept of eternal recurrence, apart from the immersive VR experience, in the physical installation, each object streams into different strata of time like the handrail from the Titanic corridors that is held up by the weight of a 3.5 billion-year-old microbial matt.
Eternal Return is on view at STRP Festival in Eindhoven from 30th March to 7th April 2019.
Text by CLOT Magazine (Twitter @clotmagazine)
