How much does the placement of a laptop camera or the delay in signal transmission affect the sense of proximity?
Listen to the artist in English:
After lockdowns, when touch became a threat, proximity demanded restrictions, and later, emigration became another form of seclusion. My life became increasingly conducted through a phone. I touched the screen while talking to loved ones, stroked their profile pictures in a surge of longing, and loved someone who was far away.
This interactive installation is part of a project exploring the limits of the perception of touch and the illusion of closeness and how technology can affect our experience of physical presence.
It poses the question of the extent to which technology can simulate physical presence and how our bodies respond to the touch we simultaneously feel and observe – when, by touching an object, we become part of a replicated experience, shared through imagery and recording the reactions of others.
Monika Masłoń graduated from Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, where she studied at the Faculty of Graphics and Painting in the Multimedia Graphics Department. From 2011-2016 she was a PhD student at the Polish National Film School in Łódź at the Direction of the Photography and TV Production department, where she completed her PhD thesis titled Do zobaczenia (See you) under the supervision of Prof. Józef Robakowski.
The scope of her art activities is manifested mainly through realizations based on audiovisual material. She is a member of the videopunkt group.
She participated in numerous exhibitions and shows. Her works were displayed during festivals such as WRO Biennale 2023, DOKLeipzig (2022, Germany), VERZIÓ (2022, Hungary), danubeVIDEOARTfestival 2013 (Austria), Łódź of Four Cultures 2012-GENERATIONS, Warsaw Festival of Art Photography (2011, 2009, 2015), Focus Łódź Biennale 2010, Photofetival (Łódź – 2009, 2014), Camerimage (2008) as well as exhibitions: Museum of Arts in Łódź (2013), Kordegarda Project – a Branch of Zachęta – National Gallery of Arts in Warsaw (2010), Manhattan Gallery in Łódź (2010, 2015), EL Gallery in Elbląg (2010), Flottmann-Hallen Gallery in Herne (2009), Studio Gallery in Warsaw (2009), Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź (2009).
Since 2011, she has worked at the Institute of Art Education APS in Warsaw, where she teaches classes for Arts Education students on modern art activities, intermedia projects, video, and space activities.
She participated in numerous educational, art, and photography projects and workshops, such as the International Summer Academy in Scheersberg, Germany, and Between the West and the East—Crimea and Belarus. Manual.