Separation / Séparation
Originally a text written during a stay in the hospital in 2001. The visitor is constrained to follow the implemented exercises. The exercises are based on the exercises in workpace, a breaks and exercise software tool proven to assist the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI).
Annie Abrahams Co production Panoplie.org 2002 2003 Programmation William Pezet.
body-machine/corps-machine
"This is the first time that my body has been directly addressed, indeed disciplined, by a Net Art work. This is made possible by its complex composition. separation/séparation is made of many parts: a web interface, an economical visual aesthetic, texts (the monologue, the instructions, the commands), human-to-machine interaction." Essay for the catalogue of "If not you not me" exhibition of work by Annie Abrahams at HTTP gallery in London, Ruth Catlow, January 2010 http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=378
All computer workers tend to forget their body, and so risk to be a victim of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) one day. The visitors of 'separation' are constraint to click slowly ( as someone recovering from rsi) to see appearing one word at a time of the text. Every now and than a exercise is proposed and all interaction with the computer is postponed. (A recovering rsi patient needs to do this kind of exercises.)
The text seems to be about a separation between human beings, only the last two phrases reveal that it's about a separation between a human being and a computer.