mi$$-Eupnea

2020

Digital, Performance

Artist/s: Angela Goh & Su Yu Hsin

Eupnea: a mode of breathing that occurs at rest and within meditative state that does not require the cognitive thought of the individual.

As part of BLEED 2020, mi$$ - Eupnea explores the modern age of digital saturation. The new eco-system of likes, views and word vomit run by the many armies of followers. What would happen if it all shut down? What does your world around you look like if you had to view it through the naked eye not the lens of a smart (dumb) phone? 

mi$$-Eupnea is a moving breathing being. She is waiting for you to listen to your breathe synchronise with the leaves above you. Her skin is layered with imagery of natural environments moving together as one, she speaks through sonic vibrations captured and refiltered, she will slow your breathing until you too learn to breathe with country.

Layers upon layers of environments will re-flood your brains with spiderwebs instead of interwebs, you can swim or surf waves not the internet and connect to your breathe instead of the wifi. This era talks about connection more than any other but how connected are we? Humans evolved with circles, central communities and a central fire. This lack of community and facing one another and ourselves is too big for one installation to answer but it is important to start understanding. The circle is another element for connection and reflection that is used symbolically within the videos in reference to these ideas. 

The average person’s attention span is now just 4.1 seconds. What does this mean when humans sit within nature? Nature doesn’t move quickly, it unfolds slowly. So how do we process it or do we choose to sit back down and view the world through the screen. Eupnea can also be framed as being in sync with the natural environment around you. For Indigenous peoples this is what we call breathing with country. This slowing down of the breath, slows the nervous system and releases endorphins throughout the body. A simple act that I invite the viewer to try.

The constant scrolling, information and bombarding sounds of modern life lead to majority of people breathing through their upper chambers within their lungs (shallow breathing). Shallow breathing keeps us in a state of panic. So to sit in nature can feel unsettling for some as you must slow down, breathe deep and feel. This work is a reaction to so much of society not knowing anything about the country they reside on. Breathing with country is a slow and steady step to understanding and being more connected to the places we reside as well as our bodies. The two are interchangeable and important. Once you view soil as precious as skin, rivers as delicately as veins and forests as crucial lungs you begin to care for country and yourself. 

Images Courtesy of Campbelltown Arts Centre and the Artist.