Participate in the performance! Ali Akbar Mehta: Purgatory EDIT

As part of the Empathy exhibition, the artist Ali Akbar Mehta has an artwork purgatory EDIT: The Liberation Archives for the Cyborgs of Now (2026). The artwork is a user-generated montage-based cinematic experience.

The artwork explores how digital technologies shape the subconscious and our sense of reality—through visual manipulation, sensory overload, data fatigue, and ideological numbness. At the same time, the work asks what happens to empathy when reality is filtered through screens and algorithms: does human connection persist, or does it shift? Does witnessing violence heighten emotional sensitivity, or does it numb us to its presence?

The artwork includes a performance that invites participant to engage and explore the artwork’s archive in a guided way. It combines the act of viewing with the participant’s emotions, bodily reactions, and thought processes. To enable this, the experience uses an EEG brain sensor, a brain–computer interface (BCI), and custom software developed by the purgatory EDIT team.

What happens during the performance?

During the performance, the participant watches archival material through XR glasses while the EEG device measures emotion‑related reactions. The device interprets these reactions through six emotional states: interest, engagement, concentration, stress, excitement, and relaxation. This data is transferred to the brain–computer interface for processing.

The audio and video processing software makes it possible for the participant’s emotions to directly influence the order and presentation of the archival clips. For example, the level of stress may determine how intense the violence in the video clip is, and concentration may affect when the video shifts to the next one. How does the mind react to images? And how does empathy arise—or disappear—amid a constant flow of images?

The participant’s real-time interaction during the performance produces unique, conceptual, montage-based cinematic compositions—so‑called experience videos. They reveal each participant’s individual relationship to representations of violence, the attention economy, and surveillance capitalism. These montage videos are shown in the museum whenever the niche is not being used for the performance.

Information for booking:

Instructions during the performance are given in English.

Participation is free of charge.

Participants must be at least 18 years old.

Read more and book: https:/­/­www.artsimuseo.com/­cyberperformance