Theoretical Inspiration

When working on the series “The World of Hedonia”, I was inspired by Mark Fisher's book “Capitalist Realism”, where he accurately described my condition during the experiment. I realized that I was in “depressive hedonia” – the inability to do anything other than seek pleasure.

The project was also influenced by ideas from philosopher Paul B. Preciado's book “Pharmaco-pornographic Politics: Towards a New Gender Ecology”, in which he explored the connection between biopolitics and late capitalism. Here's my favorite quote from there:

“The success of contemporary techno-science consists in transforming our depression into Prozac, our masculinity into testosterone, our erection into Viagra, our fertility/sterility into the pill, our AIDS into Tri-therapy without knowing which comes first; if depression or Prozac, if Viagra or an erection, if testosterone or masculinity, if the pill or maternity, if Tri-therapy or AIDS.”