Seth De Silva

 

FMP Proposal Title: V1: Exploring hallucinations that occur in the human mind. Field of study | To a person with able sight his or her world and immediate surrounding is composed of what they see. Their understanding of the space around them is defined by what they see in front of them as well as what they know to be true through past experience. John Berger says in his book the Ways of Seeing that ʻʻIt is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world…ʼ The process of seeing or rather the act of vision on a whole is not just a phenomenon of the eye but a holistic system, constituting the mind, eyes and nervous system, all intimately connected. Albert Huxley a famed American novelist and master of vision explained that the act of seeing is formed of 3 separate yet interconnected processes: the sensual, physiological act of seeing, the selection processes that is often individual to the eye and finally the act of perception. The process that ʻentails the recognition of the senses and selected sensum (visual data) as the appearance of a physical object existing in the external world.ʼ (Huxley, 1982) What is of interest to me for my final major project is this physiological/physiological process of seeing but also there is another process of seeing that has my attention. One that is of concern when the mind is in a specific state; a world of subconscious that ʻcan never be colonized, (that) are seldom thoroughly explored, and in many cases await(s) even discovery.ʼ (Huxley, 1999) This state of mind is when the individual is prone hallucinatory experiences, shifts of consciousness, and the visionary experience. Albert Huxley talks a great deal about the mind in this state, explaining that many have attempted to achieve this state over centuries either through rigorous mediation, breathing exercises, religious prayer or using chemicals. When in this state individuals often find themselves seeing as Huxley notes in his essay the Doors of Perception, various different moving geometries. It is known that for generations human beings have had hallucinatory experiences, for instance in the documentary by Nigel Spivey titled How Art Made The World, he explores the cave drawings of ancient Western and Eastern tribes. Both who had strange geometric shapes illustrated over various animals and people. It is known that sensory deprivation; such as that of being in a cave for long period of time, devoid of light, is one way that the mind can enter a state where it is able to hallucinate. For my project I would like to explore this idea of hallucination, I am curious about the geometries created in the mind and would like to explore them visually as it is not possible to create an environment where one can have such an experience, rather I would like to simulate these hallucinations digitally. Getting an idea of what these forms might look like I will to look into psychology, as there already existing theories on how these forms are created in the mind and how they can be replicated.      

Seth De Silva

 

Design Problem/Question | Many things in the visual world we live in intend on stimulating the eye and drawing focus to external imagery, drawing your attention to the image and symbols. Many Design works in fact are visually masterful; they look amazing and are visual delights all on their own. However very few address the ideas of vision it self, both the physiological and psychological processes and very few allow active introspection. With contemporary technology itʼs possible to simulate the conditions for such introspective experiences to occur without the use of chemicals that physiological affect the body as well as without painstaking meditation. Through this project I intend to harness the ability of graphic design new media to create an installation environment that simulates what a person may see if they were to experience a ʻvisionary experiencesʼ. I would like to create possible geometrical abstractions that they may see if they were under the influence of psycadelics or in other mentally stressful conditions. I feel I will be able to use software as well as hardware such as arduinos and various lights to create a controlled environment that is highly sensitive to the eye and that is seemingly transforming continuously. The use of stroboscopic controlled lights will greatly enhance the effectiveness of the simulation, as they tend to distort visual perception, thus making the imagery more effective. As this sort of thing is best experienced individually, I believe the installation will only accommodate a single person at once.      Context |

Olafur Eliasson and Ma Yansong: Feelings are Facts 2010 This immersive installation by Icelandic Artist Olafur Eliasson and Chinese architect Ma Yansong was created within the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art in Beijing, using arrays of red, green and blue fluorescent lights as well as an artificial fog simulator. The installation aims to create a climate that deprives the body of the sense of vision thus challenging the human bodies known spatial perception and orientation. Therefore forcing it to create new

Seth De Silva

 

ways of perceiving (feeling) the space around it, thus creating a new over all experience for the operating body. ʻour feelings and sensibilities are seeing facts in the context of habituated life. No(t) until shutting our eyes, can b(we)e feel the world from within, space and light will touch your soul.' - ma yansong

Carsten Holler: Lichtwand 2000 An automatic light installation is the work of Swedish artist Carsten Holler, where an embankment of several thousand incandescent light bulbs pulsates at a fixed rate. The light bulbs flash at a frequency of 7.8hz, which is synchronous to the rate at which the brain processes, therefore giving the installation the possibility to induce visual hallucinations in the mind. The intent of the noisy and visually bombarding installation is in fact to generate a sense of dislocation and disorient; however it is only able to achieve this goal when there is a viewer present. Holler mentions that his piece is ʻintended to synchronise with the visitors in order to produce something together with

Seth De Silva

 

Kurt Hentschlager : Zee, 2008 Zee is a fully immersive installation space created by Austrian artist Kurt Henschlager. It is essentially a large room filled with odourless dense fog and stroboscopic light as well as audio, where are viewers are deprived of visual and auditory stimuli. There are four strobe lights flickering at different frequencies and an ambient soundtrack that plays throughout the room. Visitors are free to explore the room as dense walls of light confront them. The work as the artist describes is a ʻkinetic space in continual fluxʼ, where the strobe lights alter the viewers perception of the space they inhabit; the rate of the strobe leads them to perceive large geometric shapes as well as dense patterns that may or may not actually exist. The actual size and ends of the room become harder to distinguish, challenging the boundaries between perception and sensation. The processing rate of the brain is challenged in the space so that when the visual stimulus intensifies the mind starts to fill in the blanks itself that it cannot process. The work reduces the physical world and space into nothing, dissipating all visual cues that we are familiar with, thus creating a completely new and unfamiliar environment both physically and perceptually.

Seth De Silva

 

James Turrell: Bindu Shards 2010 Bindu Shards is a piece created by Californian artist James Turrell, who works with light as a medium, it is part of his ʻPerceptual Cellsʼ series and is based on a spherical chamber that Turrell built in 1993 entitled ʻGassworksʼ. His work is usually large and spacious. Bindu Shards by Turrell is a fully immersive capsule that spectators enter one at a time and once inside are deprived of sensory stimuli and confronted by pulsing lights, colour and various tones of sound. The work according to Turrell is supposed to invoke ʻbehind-the-eyesʼ seeing, viewers experience stroboscopic colours interspersed by solid colours and darkness. When this occurs the viewer experiences the minds eye or rather it triggers the mind into an active state of imagination as it becomes impossible to distinguish what is real. It also creates what is known as the ʻPurkinje effectʼ, a phenomena where the human eye tends towards the blue end of the colour spectrum when exposed to low light conditions. Rapid changes from light to dark levels of light inside the capsule stimulate what the mind and eye perceives thus dissolving the boundaries between reality and what is imagined. The work addresses the notion that we live in the reality that our minds create; that we create.

Seth De Silva

 

Optocoupler: Ludwig Zeller 2011 Shown initially at the Design Interaction end of year show at the RCA, Ludwig Zellerʼs Optocoupler is a futuristic device intent on being a ʻdigital depressantʼ for the overactive contemporary human mind. The capsule fitted with an array of 3X3 RGB LED matrices and 9 Rainbowduinos is intended to relax the mind of a future society. ʻThis device uses the principles of brainwave synchronization through audiovisual sensations in order to slow down and relax the brain activity of its user.ʼ

Envrio-Pill: Archigram: 1969 Although completely different from the other work I have presented, this project I find rather interesting. It is a speculative design by the Archigram group for a pill that induces ʻarchitecture or virtual environments in the mind.ʼ I found it rather relevant to my research dealing with changing consciousness and inducing hallucinatory experiences.

Seth De Silva

 

Heinrcih Kluver: 1969 Form Constants Another interesting body of work I found was Form Constants by the psychologist Heinrich Kluver, he was one of the first psychologists to do controlled tests on people with the halucogenic peyote, also known as mescaline. Whatʼs interesting about Kluverʼs work is that the patterns he discovered are based on actual scientific and mathematical theories. These patterns were actually optical distortions of noise in the visual field that occurred when mescaline was taken, the spiral effect is formed due the physiological nature of the human retina. For instance if the visual noise in a hallucination was of a checkerboard typed the nature, the subject would see it as spiral lines.

Seth De Silva

 

Rationale | I believe this project has a significant place in todays digital world especially as more and more we are visually pulled away by various external visual spectacles; public advertisements, television, handheld devices, personal laptops, all craving our attention and inspection. Yet there isnʼt a moment in contemporary metropolitan life, not even at home nowadays, where technology lets you be introspective, where instead of giving you a piece of its mind, technology lets you enjoy a piece of yours. I enjoy this area of practice where technology is used as a catalyst to explore the functionality of the human mind, it is extremely interesting to me also how new technology, especially light and video based technology can be used to influence our perceptions. Also it interesting to explore some thing that is very human and almost intangible in way as it only occurs an individuals mind. Exploring this through technology is very interesting. Methods | I will begin by continuing my research into the science of perception and the process of vision. Then I will research into what sort of lighting and colour as well as auditory conditions allows people to enter an introspective, trance like states. I will then read further into what these forms look like, by observing at work by Heinrich Kluver and others. It will definitely be of note to research into sound and light frequencies as well as effects of controlled stroboscopic light. After achieving a concrete idea of how these elements can be combined and in what order they must be synthesised and executed in order to reach the final goal, I will begin to design the actual installation. The installation will need to have controlled levels of light; therefore I may use lights or light bulbs. It may not be necessary as the projectors may yield sufficient enough light. But controlled lights, either via arduino or dmx will be very useful and may add to the integrity of the experience. For the sound, some general decent quality loud speakers will be fine, the sound aspect of the project will be synchronous to the visuals however it will not be of as much significance. The synchronization of the all elements will be via software, I donʼt intend on triggering or control these elements live as I hope to automate the entire installation, so you simply enter and enjoy. Without the need for any third party hosts to guide you etc. Once the technicalities and interior of the installation is set, I will begin designing the exterior to box the entire installation; it isnʼt going to be very large, as its only meant for a single person. Skills Evidence | I will need quite a few skills if I am to have a working prototype of this project. Initially of course I will need to know how to program and control lights as well as projections. I will need to know how to trigger and synchronize various lights, sounds and videos simultaneously.

Seth De Silva

 

Therefore I will need to learn how to use arudinos and processing. I will also need to be able to technically draw my idea, as I will need to construct some kind of exterior for it, perhaps out of wood. I will also need to be able to design the exterior of my idea using 3d software or to draw technically and to scale if I am to get foam, plastic or prototype of it. Predicted Resolutions | A small-scale installation that can accommodate the torso or perhaps the head of an individual. Who once inside is treated to various geometric shapes transforming rapidly and where sound is played in synchronicity to rapidly transforming imagery. Plan of Work | Week 2-3: Start to plan the physicality of the installation. Make sketches and mock-ups. Order parts etc. Week 3-4: Experimenting with colours, videos and light in order simulate/trigger such experiences. Week 4-5: Start to finalize the structure of the installation. Order parts etc. Week 6-7: Start to finalize the content of the installation, lights, videos, sound etc. Week 7-8: Start building the installation, putting the content and the structure together. Week 8-9: Building  Week 9-10: Finalize, test and prepare for exhibition. Bibliography | Aldous Huxley, 1999. Moksha: Aldous Huxley's Classic Writings on Psychedelics and the Visionary Experience. Reprint Edition. Park Street Press. Aldous Huxley, 1977. Brave New World. Edition. Flamingo / Harper Collins Publishers. Jean Baudrillard, 2001. The Vital Illusion. 0 Edition. Columbia University Press. John Berger, 1990. Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series. 1st Edition. Penguin (Non-Classics). , 2011. See this Sound: Audiovisuology 2. Edition. Walther König, Köln. Aldous Huxley, 1982. Art of Seeing. Edition. Creative Arts Book Company. http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themes/overview_of_media_art/perception/ Accessed February 2012   Bard Ermentrout, 2001. What Geometric Visual Hallucinations Tell us About the Visual Cortex