Anna Berry. The Constantly Moving Happiness Machine

In the organizer's words:

The art installation "The Constantly Moving Happiness Machine" by Anna Berry expands the ThinkSpace "Time & Temporality" at the Dahlem Research Campus and sheds light on the intertwining of time, consumption and manipulation. The work addresses the acceleration of consumption and the permanent creation of needs as mechanisms of our economic system. Anna Berry leads visitors into a reflective examination of their role as consumers and their unconscious participation in global capitalism. Free admission.

Anna Berry's artwork "The Constantly Moving Happiness Machine" focuses on interactivity: visitors can turn a crank to set the installation in motion. This evokes the immediate fulfillment of their wishes, similar to the processes in everyday consumer behavior. But behind the seemingly harmless gesture lies a deeper message: the objects consist of books whose contents reflect ideological texts by Ayn Rand and support the principles of neoliberal market capitalism.

The work challenges visitors to become aware of their unconscious consent to advertising and consumer strategies and questions the manipulation that leads to the creation of a consumerist society. In dealing with these issues, a critical reflection on productivity, extra work and the effects of manipulation through consumer behavior also resonates. "The Constantly Moving Happiness Machine" invites us to question the tacit approval of capitalism and the mechanisms of self-seduction. In this way, the installation enables critical reflection on time, the economy and our own consumer behavior.

In addition to the installation "The Constantly Moving Happiness Machine", photographs from Anna Berry's Corona series and her still lifes will also be presented, in which the artist humorously reinterprets classic themes. With her special eye, she manages to depict the everyday with a twinkle in her eye, inviting playful yet thought-provoking contemplation.

The Dahlem Research Campus

FC Dahlem is a new research and presentation site of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK). Various areas of expertise are combined here to develop and visualize knowledge about material and immaterial cultures. The focus is on transparent research processes and the participation of different interest groups. The guiding concepts "Cultures - Research - Things - Knowledge" reflect the work. FC Dahlem promotes cooperation on an equal footing and stands for the dismantling of knowledge hierarchies.

"Time & Temporality" a ThinkSpace of the Research Campus Dahlem is funded by the Kuratorium Preußischer Kulturbesitz.

A presentation in the ThinkSpace "Time & Temporality" of the Research Campus Dahlem of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation