This idea was inspired by Walter de Maria’s Time/Timeless/No Time.

The characteristic of contemporary competition (Education/Job/Economy/Appeal): Our perception and self-esteem are based upon relativity, not absoluteness: We compare with our peers to evaluate the value. Value is perceived as the relativeness of the comparable object, not as the absolute value itself - We are doomed when we think about the absolute value of a certain new object.

Thus, even though the absolute quality of life of people has increased ever since industrialisation, people are never satisfied with themselves, as they keep on comparing relativity, rather than absoluteness.

Thus upon competition, we tend to consume more and more resources - which leads to climate change and many ecological disasters we are facing. Hence, we are still not satisfied. Symbolically representing - we tend to be a hundred times wealthier (in an absolute term) than in the past and consume a hundred times more resources than in the past, but still, our psychological satisfaction remains constant (or even diminished), and yet we continue to compete whilst consuming more resources.

An MDWA performance to represent this idea:

Multiple audiences & each with mobile, a one big projection screen.

They all press on the mobile-first without reckoning what’s happening. The more they press, the more their score goes on - the score is represented as abstractive data visualisation on the big screen. They compete with each other. The score gets larger, higher → And upon, the lower score starts to submerge (a symbolic representation of the sea level rising) → But still the higher ones get higher… And actually few survive in the end.