iPak - 10.000 songs, 10.000 images, 10.000 abuses

I started as a graphic designer, studied design for four years and worked for two years, earning and contented. Yet, I though, there is more to just career and contentment, ‘how to make the world a better place to live‘. This was merely an ignorant decision, not knowing the consequences, I decided to study further. This brought me to England to do my Post Graduate Degree in Artist’ video, film and photography, at the University College for the Creative Arts in Kent. Focussing on my decision of ‘how to make the world a better place to live’, I picked up on my own physical disadvantage. Yes, I can no longer walk on my own! The fact is I am ‘disabled’. It’s so very hard and difficult for an individual to realise, recognize and visualize, or in short, to acquire the reality that he or she is physically or mentally impaired. Disability is one of the major problematic issues of our daily life. Being disabled or looking at a disabled person is difficult for people to accept, although people and societies of the world have been working on making the ‘deviant‘, what was considered to be the under privileged; the disable, the norm but have been only partially successful. This radical personal alteration or change has transformed my life immensely, but very positively. One of the best ways, from my point of view, is how I can express this transformation optimistically through art., therefore it became a desire for me as a video/media artist, to know, to acknowledge, and to actively produce video art work that motivated me and now that has become the primary focus. I use art as a means to communicate my reality of struggle and achievement. In fact it does become a reality for all mankind as at one point or the other a person does have to struggle to achieve and accomplish in life. Thus I would like to make work not only relating to disability, but a universal message to all mankind. Disability does not just end on disabled people. From my perspective everyone suffers from a physical or mental draw back, it maybe the tendency to get tired soon or fear of heights or even being simply careless. Thus my work does not specifically touch my personal issues alone, but also surfs around the questions and matters in general.