Rough moments in life find us all at some point or another, and we all have a different methodology in order to survive these times. For the artist Erica Scourti, this survival routine gave birth to Exit Scripts, a video work that was compiled through audio transcripts by the artist herself as she went through 18 months of relative hell, with breakups, evictions, and other difficulties. What is interesting about Scourti’s methodology is that she chose not to rely on her friends, but instead on technology. As she went about her daily life, she began a pattern of recording her thoughts, emotions, and fears onto her phone via a recording app. This act simulated being on the phone to someone; it acted as a proxy therapist or best friend as she strode around London regurgitating her mind into data.

After she had recovered through this practice of radical gossip and self-care, she let the computer auto-transcribe her notes, which she ran through Beyond Verbal, software that detects emotions in speech. Scourti trained her software to pick up on signs of arousal throughout her lamenting monologues. The video work plays out inside Scourti’s installation, which she describes as a hybrid space of healing, surveillance, and experimentation. Reading her heartbroken words fuelled with arousal, Scourti began to think further on the notion of emotional surveillance and somatic forensics.

Exit Scripts, 2018
Digital video installation, 115’
Courtesy of the artist