Heather Phillipson
(British, b. 1978)
STATUS EPILEPTICUS, 2018
Website
Commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Featured images

Heather Phillipson, screenshot of STATUS EPILEPTICUS, 2018

Heather Phillipson, screenshot of STATUS EPILEPTICUS, 2018

Heather Phillipson, screenshot of STATUS EPILEPTICUS, 2018

Heather Phillipson, screenshot of STATUS EPILEPTICUS, 2018
About the work
WARNING: This work contains fast, flashing images.
Heather Phillipson's newly commissioned online work is part web-movie, part unsung opera, and part browser-poem. Referencing a medical condition of prolonged seizures, STATUS EPILEPTICUS allows users to navigate multiple sequence-less, simultaneous, and potentially expendable installments. Working against the typically positive associations of light—as a symbol of knowledge, goodness, and progress—STATUS EPILEPTICUS mixes rhythms of vigilance, distraction, and blackout with nocturnal, burrowing creatures and wilder, resistant thinking.