The Beijing Accelerator examines the precarious balance of machine, image and body in time and the effects that accelerated forces of gravity have on today's urban citizenry. By manipulating both elements separately, the installation plays with both physical and visual perception. Participants sit in a racing car seat attached to a motorized revolving arm and focus on a video projection which is simultaneously circulating with them. Using a joystick the ‘accelerators’ control their own tempo and direction, and are challenged to synchronize their own speed with that of the images. The experience begins to tilt to a condition inducing a relative visual standstill.

Concept, hardware and images: Marnix de Nijs
Image manipulation: Reinier van Brummelen (Stereo Matrix), NLSound: Boris Debackere, Antwerp, BESoftware: Brecht Debackere, Antwerp, BE