”Environmental Dependency Syndrome” focuses on the perceptual and cognitive prerequisites for how we as individuals perceive our environs, as well as the social and ideological structures that shape our world view and interaction with others. In the installation three different stories are told, inspired by neuropsychiatric case studies made by Lhermitte in the 1980s. The particular brain damage Lhermitte observed has far reaching consequences for our view on free will and individual autonomy. The persons he describes are behaving as if they are part of a computer game – If you see a chair: sit down on the chair; if you see a gun: load the gun. Objects in the immediate surrounding function as triggers for certain behaviors, predetermined by the individual’s social background. The persons themselves though, consider their actions to be perfectly normal.

”Environmental Dependency Syndrome” was made during a Sumu residency at Gallery Titanik, Turku, Finland and the photos are from the exhibition Sonic Sunrises - Nordic sound art, Dec 3-13, 2009.

With support from Gallery Titanik, Nordic Culture Point, The Swedish Arts Grants Committee. Many thanks to Nina, Janne, Julle, Paula, Reiska and Gallery Titanik.