Anhelo (2006)

Runtime: 2 m : 00 s Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Media: Digital Video | DVD

Anhelo means both to breathe and to desire. In Anhelo, video artist Adam Trowbridge attempts to trigger the mirror-neuron mechanism in which watching another human perform a task creates sympathetic neural response in the brain of the viewer. Mirror neurons are active when a person performs a task but they are also active when watching another person perform the same task. In Anhelo, this action/observation effect closes a circuit of breathing between the figures on the screen and the audience. By isolating all action on the screen to the breathing of these two people, Anhelo attempts to create a film experience that is physical by way of the brain. The audience not only watches the breathing on the screen, they unconsciously join in.