What happens when you start paying close attention to everyday sensory experience?

Our waking experience overflows with small sensations that we almost never verbalise: the feel of pushing a computer key; a brief, satisfying scratch; a word or image rising into consciousness before dissipating. Experience Composite aims to capture those small, abstract moments that otherwise go ignored or quickly disappear. Commissioned in association with the Wellcome Collection, this short film builds on the work of the US psychologist Russell Hurlburt, who in 2006 developed a process called descriptive experience sampling (DES) to document the small moments that make up our inner lives. DES participants wear a small beeper and write down the contents of their experience when it sounds off randomly during the day. Using split-screen image pairings, the UK director Ed Prosser’s experimental short film crafts several ‘beep summaries’ into brief vignettes that both express and expand on these fleeting experiences.