The fake slot machines stopped every few seconds, confronting the viewer with series of expressions. What was at stake here were human needs and not cherries or water melons. But what about these needs, these wishes and desires that haunt and motivate us? Maslow’s definition is probably the best-known. According to his theory, we move up the steps of a hierarchy from the lower levels of a pyramid with their basic requirements (food, drink, sleep) to the desire for self-actualization at the top.
Relating to this approach, Sofia Goscinski centered on human needs in her video work. The artist made them flicker across the screen as words and invited viewers to join in the game, at least intellectually, for the reels on the three screens spun at random, exactly as we seem to act randomly without asking ourselves which needs are behind the things we do or who has awakened them.
With Play Human Needs Sofia Goscinski referred to the manipulation of human needs we are subjected to in today’s media world that exercises its influence on us at every turn and day by day.