Mimetic Desire – Martti Kaartinen & Lena Gätjens

Mimetic Desire is an interactive video and light installation. The video piece is designed to be viewed on a smartphone, which is provided to visitors along with headphones. They are then guided through the entrance into the light installation, which is designed as part of the whole. Upon entering the room, the viewer becomes part of the entire work.

The title of the work refers to René Girard’s theory of mimetic desire. According to him, the prevailing view that our desires are our own and arise from our autonomous selves is incorrect. Instead, desires are mimetic: we want what others appear to want. Often, we do not recognize our mimetic behavior. Instead, algorithms often decide the content of images and music for us. They continuously give us more of what we seem to want. The phone is a fetish, a magical device that seems to be connected to an endless source of content.

Mimetic Desire comments on the relationship between humans and their phones, which has become very important. It focuses on the parallel reality that the phone opens up for us.

Mimetic Desire offers the viewer a spatial, conceptual, and tactile experience. Despite, or perhaps because of, the artificiality of machine intelligence and visual impact, it becomes a genuine and intimate human experience.

The work is in English. The duration of the video installation is 18 minutes.

The video installation is created by Martti Kaartinen, who lives in Pori and Berlin.
The light installation is by Berlin-based artist Lena Gätjens.
The music is composed by Rasmus Hedlund, originally from Pori.
The sound mixing is done by Pietu Korhonen.
The voice actors are Joy Dietrich from New York and Nicolas Atas from Berlin.
The producer is Niklas Kullström, Hillstream Pictures.

Translated with Copilot