Conditions of Presence

Conditions of Presence is a four-part video series examining how emotion is transformed within contemporary data systems. The work follows emotion as it moves from lived experience to measurable input, from archived data to infrastructural resource, and ultimately to a form of voluntarily optimised subjectivity. 1. Decay — Emotional texts remain archived yet gradually erode, questioning the assumption that digital systems preserve experience without loss. 2. Closed Loop — Visitors are continuously sensed yet receive no response, revealing a condition where emotion is monitored but never reciprocated. 3. Infrastructure — Emotion circulates as a networked resource. Individual expression dissolves into metrics, patterns, and systemic flows. 4. Digital Meditation — A fluctuating “calm index” translates stillness into performance, turning inner states into measurable output. Together, the work asks: when emotion becomes operationalised within digital systems, can it still remain emotion?