Kate Geck: R L X:tech

Title:

R L X:tech

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Creation Year:

2015

Medium:

Installation

Artist Statement:

R L X:tech is a contemporary relaxation studio specialising in meditation strategies to manage the demands of your connected life. Our perennial waiting room features augmented, artist-designed wall hangings that are accessible through a free app available for smart devices. Once activated, it streams a range of guided meditation videos designed to alleviate common psychosocial ailments, such as nerve pain from endless scrolls. Or overwhelming dichotomies of engage/ignore, private/public. A new language of interaction is evolving, and the emerging codes can be confusing (read but not replied), unpredictable (Gangnam Style) and tiresome (#yolo). R L X:tech provides space for you to manage these stressors through the very devices that trigger them. Transcend the anxieties constant connectivity generates. Allow the wash of activity to reinvigorate screen eyes; let hunched bodies stretch out in the soft space. Disrupt the timestamps and binaries of interaction with quiet contemplation and reconnection to mind and body. And if you don’t have a smart device, you probably don’t need to R L X.