Originally a text written during a stay in the hospital in 2001. The visitor is constrained to follow the implemented exercises. The exercises are based on the exercises in workpace, a breaks and exercise software tool proven to assist the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI).

All computer workers tend to forget their body, and so risk to be a victim of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) one day. The visitors of 'separation' are constraint to click slowly (, as someone recovering from rsi) to see appearing one word at a time of the text. Every now and than a exercise is proposed and all interaction with the computer is postponed. (A recovering rsi patient needs to do this kind of exercises.)
The text seems to be about a separation between human beings, only the last two phrases reveal that it's about a separation between a human being and a computer.

Review on " separation " by R. Catlow for furtherfield.org 2003 and by Remedios Zafra (Spanish) in the show 'Habitar en (punto) net' at "Espai F", Mataró (Barcelona) Spain, 24 10- 19 12 2003. (With Auriea Harvey, Tina Laporta, Margot Lovejoy, Mary Flannagan, Laura Floid, Cornelia Solfrank and Natalie Bookchin.) Presentations : Betaspace aout 03, 'Perspectives03', Computer Space Festival à Sofia/Bulgaria, 'ENTRAÎNEMENTS # 3 : Awardedin the section internet of 'travail de la danse/chorégraphies du travail', la Ménagerie de Verre, Paris, EDNA and Siemens Arts Program 2003, Festival Acces(s), Billère/Pau, France, Das TAT im Bockenheimer Depot, Frankfurt am Main, Allemagne, Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Lille/Tourcoing, France in 2004, Terminal X-perienZ 12 Dec. -18 Dec., centre Noroit, Erres. 2004, "Premio Internazionale Dino Villani", Galleria del Premio Suzzara, Mantova, 19 09 2004 – 2 02 2005, III muestra internacional de artes electrónicas, Bogota, Columbia, curator : Karen Dermineur 2005, Journée d'étude "Esthétiques intermédias: approches historiques" organised by Annie Gentès (ENST) and Isabelle Rieusset-Lemarié (MECSCI, UVSQ), Théâtre Paris - Villette, 1006 2006. Incorporated in thecomputerfinearts.com collection New York in 2005. Presented at [DAM] Berlin. 10.11 - 5.12.2006. Included in the Electronic Literature Collection 2 http://www.eliterature.org/ 2010.

"This is the first time that my body has been directly addressed, indeed disciplined, by a Net Art work. This is made possible by its complex composition. separation/séparation is made of many parts: a web interface, an economical visual aesthetic, texts (the monologue, the instructions, the commands), human-to-machine interaction." Essay for the catalogue of "If not you not me" exhibition of work by Annie Abrahams at HTTP gallery in London, Ruth Catlow, January 2010  http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=378