Antti Tolvi: Distance and warmth

Distance and warmth is a multi-sensory media artwork in which an approaching light floating in the void is perceived through diffraction glasses. The work is experienced while sitting on a sonic massaging low-frequency sofa.  

On a daily basis, we can experience all the light/energy coming towards us as warmth and various sensations. We can observe this same sensation moving in the other direction as well. Our feeling towards someone can be warm etc.  Even if we encounter only pure light, we do not feel only pure light. We always add something from our experience to the feeling, with which we try to understand and explain it to ourselves. What we automatically add to something can be relearned to some extent, if we want to. In other words, we can learn to accept things in new ways. We can learn to perceive heat more sensitively.    

The work suggests opening our attention a little wider, to explore the ability to see a bit of open space around things, room to manoeuvre. We calmly listen to our feelings, how things sound in the space of our mind and how they resonate with other things around us. Finally, we can ask, are any things somehow separate from each other? And is there any distance between anything at all?