Post-Reality Comes In a Flashing Light

The new “post-realities” determined by computer-generated worlds may come in a “flashing light”, as Laureta Hajrullahu put it in the title of her video installation, influenced by the visual culture of our post-internet era. Accompanied by a friend of hers, Shkamb Jaka, she takes a walk through the internet: two digital natives create a new world together.

The installation is a direct reflection of the multiple lockdowns throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Interactions became remote and socially estranged while communication was restricted to teleconferencing platforms, live streaming the metaverse started to burgeon, digital twins and mirror worlds became a widespread concept, and cross-reality gained a new meaning. In this new era we perceive different types of digital media as a place open to the possibility of new relationships and revealing a whole new way of approaching the symbolic and cultural configuration of what a friendship can bring.

Hajrullahu is based in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, the youngest state in Europe. Kosovars still need to obtain a visa to visit most countries of the world, including the EU. The citizens of the young state were isolated already before the pandemic. Lockdowns only accelerated this condition.