Happiness
Dries Verhoeven
2019
Dries Verhoeven approached people and artificiality at NDSM
Until October 20, 2019, the work was Happiness of Studio Dries Verhoeven on display at the NDSM shipyard. The work approaches the area where man and artificiality coincide, where artificial means help us to be human again or more, or just leave that being human for a while. In Happiness Dries explores the world of artificial happiness in the form of drugs, painkillers and antidepressants. There is a small pharmacy building on the street. A humanoid — a human-looking robot — works there as a pharmacy assistant. She tells us about the means by which we can regulate the serotonin and dopamine levels in our brain, and thus adjust our reality and perception. Are we moving towards a world where we are lyrical by appointment, programmable in our feelings?
Now that recreational drug use in the nightlife seems to be becoming mainstream, and the stigma on antidepressants is beginning to disappear, our idea of what emotions are is shifting. We no longer see them as authentic true experiences, but as chemical processes in our brain that we can influence to our heart's content. By controlling the amount of serotonin and dopamine, we are able to create our reality and perception. Politically and socially, there is quite a bit of suspicion about the pharmaceuticals of the influence of consciousness, but how sustainable is this restrained use of the artificial in light of technological developments and growing demand?
To finish, the artist talk “Happiness on Demand” was organized at Sociëteit Sexyland on October 20, 2019, at ADE Hangover. Dries Verhoeven spoke to Machteld Busz (initiator of Poppi: Drugs Museum Amsterdam) and journalist Thijs Roes (De Correspondent and Vice Media) who studied the drug policy of the future. The talk was interpreted by author Marian Donner with appropriate passages from her Self-Devastation Book, that is inspired by 'Happiness'. For the occasion, there was a special artwork by Poppi Drug Museum Amsterdam to admire.
Happiness was a co-production with the NDSM-werf Foundation & SPRING Performing Arts Festival.