Commissioned by Para Site for 'Noble Rot' 

Jan 28 - April 24, 2022 

How have we become inured to bearing collective pain and trauma?

-less expands on the concept of learned helplessness through a ritualistic approach to repetitive and durational bodily acts. In psychology, learned helplessness refers to a feeling of a lack of control when one faces repetitive aversive stimuli: events that induce changes in behaviour through negative reinforcement or positive punishment. As feelings and experiences accumulate, one may learn to accept given situations and their own powerlessness, even when alternatives are available. Paradoxically, some may enforce helplessness to increase their endurance under duress by reconstructing original habits and behaviours beyond recognition. Can we remember the cues of autonomy before chaos and distress demanded of us a gradual but total recording of the body’s actions and responses?

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我們從何時開始背負並習慣堆積起苦痛與創傷？《「-less」》沿用帶有重複性的行為元素作為一個儀式並在「習得性無助」這個概念上展開。在心理學中，當一個人反覆面臨反向刺激並且感覺事態已經到了無可控制的地步時，就會發展成得習得性無助，而反向刺激可以是負面強化或正面懲罰。正因如此，即使面前擺着有可能扭轉局面的選擇，人們習得了接受不可控的事件和失控所帶來的無助感。與其相悖的是，人們會強調在面臨壓力時的無助感來增強自己的耐力，並毫無徵兆地改變自己的習性。在身體動作與反應被混亂與壓力完全改寫之前，我們能夠記得自主的信號嗎？