In This Moment

"In This Moment" is an immersive installation that simulates the sensory overload of social media and invites the audience to return to presence by striking a singing bowl to silence the chaos.

Project Video

Abstract

In This Moment is an immersive installation that explores how social media erodes the boundary between the physical and the virtual, disrupting our ability to stay present. Inspired by the artist’s personal experience of questioning whether they had ADHD, the work reflects on how algorithm-driven platforms simulate attention deficit symptoms—disorientation, fragmented focus, and sensory overload. These effects are not merely internal or diagnostic, but environmental and deliberately designed.

The installation centers on a familiar domestic space: the dining table. In contemporary life, it has become the stage for a fractured ritual—eating while scrolling through a phone. The audience is invited to sit at this table, where food and a computer are placed, creating a setting that feels both intimate and hollow. Once seated, multiple screens begin to play a video: rapid visual cuts, flashing lights, and chaotic soundscapes create an intense sensory impact. This flood of visual and auditory stimuli mirrors the overstimulation experienced on digital platforms, leading to a state of psychological and emotional fragmentation.

As the media assault escalates, nothing changes—until the viewer no longer wishes to keep paying attention to the overwhelming content. Only then might they notice the presence of a singing bowl on the table and begin to interact with it. When the viewer strikes the bowl, its resonant tone rings out, and the chaos comes to an abrupt halt. The screens fade to black. This act becomes a symbolic interruption—a consciously created moment of mindfulness that brings the viewer back into their body and into physical space. It marks a return to presence, suggesting that attention is not something passively consumed, but actively reclaimed. As the noise fades, rippling water visuals and the sound of droplets begin to play, gently guiding the viewer into a meditative, mindful state.

The work raises a central question: In a world designed to constantly fracture your attention, how do you choose to be present? This experience is not a critique of media itself, but rather an offering of pause—an invitation to reflect on one’s relationship with attention and digital environments. It addresses a cultural condition in which distraction is designed, monetized, and normalized, and in which stillness becomes something rare, even radical.
In This Moment deeply engages with issues of media psychology, digital habit formation, and mental health. Instead of pathologizing attention struggles, it shifts the focus to the external environments that shape those difficulties. Through the integration of interactive media, installation art, and sound design, the work constructs a multisensory space in which viewers can not only witness overstimulation—but choose to step out of it.

By combining embodied interaction with personal narrative, the project offers a moment of clarity within the noise—a chance to pause, to breathe, and to simply be.

Photos