"Life Journey" is an interactive installation which confronts participants/ viewers with the confinement imposed by a wheelchair. The piece contrasts the immobility of the participant, sitting motionless in the chair (which is attached to the floor) with the illusion of high-speed travel, created by projections onto the walls on either side, accompanied by the sounds of movement and the force of simulated wind from an industrial-sized floor fan.
The media employed to create the installation include a video component, a motorized wheelchair, and an industrial fan. The piece is designed so that one enters into a dark space with a single, illuminated wheelchair in the center. The LED sensor triggers as the viewer sits in the wheelchair, the wheels begin to spin, video projectors suspended from the ceiling on both sides of the chair are activated, as is an industrial fan located directly in front of the chair. The video projected on both walls consists of images of movement through different environments, that have a sunflower moving through the video frame. Twelve different paths taking you through environments as diverse as wooded paths to shopping malls at various speeds were burned on to a laser disc with stereo sound. The laser disc allows the player to randomly select the different sequences to be projected when it is triggered. My intention was to provide the participant/viewer with information to help them understand that a wheelchair, while seemingly decreasing one's mobility, may in some ways accelerate the processes by which one determines the choice of the path one's life journey takes. This vicarious "journey" continues as long as the participant remains seated in the wheelchair and stops as soon as she/he stands up. The viewer/participant is placed within the virtual environment representing the ability to move from one space to another with the understanding that individuals who live with a wheelchair have limited mobility. While the participant remains seated, the wheelchair becomes a contradiction of motion. This juxtaposition of mobility with immobility heightens one's awareness of the loss of control that one feels when confined.

Jon Berge (USA), born, I960, received a BS in psychology from the Wright State University and a MFA from the Ohio State University. Living in a wheelchair, his experience of limitation has made him focus in his work on educating and encouraging participants to examine the relevance of art and accessibility in their own lives.