The video art Human Response is available to watch at the top of the page.
The film Human Response reveals Tal Ilan’s journey in search of psychological assistance during her struggles as she confronts the challenges of her mental condition. Tal made the decision to stop taking medication for her depression, anxiety, and OCD and reached out to various treatment centers she found online that offer different and unconventional therapies. The sound accompanying the film is recordings of her phone calls with these centers.
Most of the service providers Tal contacted offered their range of products and treatments in a dry and cold manner while asking her deeply personal questions about her mental state. She responds in a similar manner, but at times, her answers are evasive and peculiar, creating an impression that she is testing or even attempting to embarrass them. This adds a dimension of absurdity to an already charged situation. As the sound of service providers typing Tal’s answers is heard between questions and responses, it adds to the feeling of discomfort and unease, unsettling us as we bear witness to the situation.
In a provocative move, Tal edited the film so that the recorded phone calls are heard in the background of unexpected and unrelated video clips, such as ski sites, animals in nature, hotel stairwells, and more. The contrast and lack of connection between the visual content and the phone calls create an additional dimension of meaning and absurdity while Tal waits for a desirable solution to her concerns. Anyone who has experienced a psychological or medical crisis and frantically searched the internet and phone for a human response that would alleviate their frustration and lack of answers can relate.
The information overload created in the digital age, with endless options and answers, and the fact that we are often forced to communicate with artificial intelligence and search engines to find what we need, frequently creates an impossible maze in the search for a tailored and appropriate human response. As we listen to the recorded phone calls and observe the visual content that Tal has chosen, we can imagine her responding to unsettling questions while her thoughts wander far from the unbearable situation. Through these video clips, which are unrelated to what is being said, Tal allows us to delve into the depths of her soul beyond words. In this seemingly modest film, Tal manages to express the human frustration of the 21st century, in which mental distress expands and spreads like an epidemic beyond the capabilities of human and inhuman responses that modern society has developed for itself.
Human Response was produced as part of Tal’s studies for a bachelor’s degree at Shenkar College of Engineering, Design, and Art.
The video art Human Response is available to watch at the top of the page.
