This diagram [a work in progress based on Fazey and Hardy, 1988] shows how sudden shifts in behaviour can arise from small changes in circumstances [See Rene Thom - catastrophe theory]. It is used here to explain the process of how increasing cognitive and somatic anxiety might lead to feelings of depersonalisation numbness or panic attacks. Since these often result from small changes. Could this model be used to explain the experiences of hallucination and perceptual illusion? Some links here to how this is used in sport science - in relation to somatic and cognitive anxiety/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSSpOfPoIf4 Theory of Catastrophes http://users.fs.cvut.cz/ivo.bukovsky/SBS/en/Catastrophes/Catastrophes1.html
Author: antonyhall
Artist, educator, and researcher working between the fields of science and art.
Measuring Anomalous experience.
Questionnaire results
Re-Action
A ‘Re/Action’ is a form of experiential art which resembles a workshop and consists of a series ‘actions’ performed or experienced by participants who interchange between roles of experimenter and audience. The focus is on reflection and introspection, for both the experimenter and participant. The process should generate new questions and evolving iterations for future action and re/action. 1. Initiation: Preparatory sub-actions, questionnaires and tasks that serve as cognitive primers which inform the following actions. 2. Action: The experience [an experiment] This should include qualitative and quantitative measures, further questionnaires, biometric data [sweat response / Heart rate] that feeds back into the experience. Importantly the process and apparatus of data collection are part of the experience. 3. Reflection: Interview and discussion. This should comprise of structured
Tabletop Experiments
A manifesto to celebrate 20 years of Tabletop Experiments. 1. The Tabletop Experiment is essentially amateur and DIY in its endeavour. It concerns science as recreation and as a practice that necessitates its own re-creation. 2. It is assembled from items readily available in the home, domestic technology; kitchen utensils, liquid soap or aquarium parts for example. 3. It is based upon a specific phenomenon of interest; an artefact of subjective perception, the physical behaviour of liquid, or the physical behaviours of an animal for example. 4. It is a discrete environment: a device, or instrument, within which a unique phenomenon can exist. Ideally this should be a rapidly developed prototype, which affords an aesthetic interplay between materials and technologies, driven by incidental function and serendipitous accident. 5.
Proximal Osmosis Collaboration
Osmosis is the gradual permeation of ideas between different fields. It implies a passive slow diffusion, an unconscious assimilation of knowledge. In biology it is a process by which molecules tend to pass through a semi-permeable membrane from a less saturated medium into a more saturated one. This leads to two mediums of equal saturation through a one-directional flow, resulting in two different volumes. These illustrations explore the idea of osmosis as a model for ‘collaboration’ as an alternative to the idealised collaborative sciart model often represented through the vesica Piscis [Fig. 1 and 2]. One in which ideas permeate through osmotic proximity [3] created by collaborative environment and mediums separated by a ‘proximal membrane’ through which ideas and knowledge
Mirror Gaze Experiment @MSP
I have been working with Manchester Science Partnerships to develop a range of workshops for their customers, the resident companies that use the park. The first session was the 'mirror gaze experiment'. During the mirror gaze experiment [MGE] participants are asked to stare at their own reflection in a mirror in a nearly dark room. An outline of the head is visible as a faint silhouette. In this state of partial sensory deprivation, the brain struggles to make sense of the information it sees. Forms and shapes begin to emerge as if from nowhere. For many observers, these develop into vivid visual hallucinations “monsters, archetypical faces, faces of relatives, and animals” (Caputo, 2012; Bortolomasi et al., 2014). This
Emergent Strange faces
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs48nJo3ukU&feature=youtu.be Emergent strange face from recent workshop at Manchester Science Park A night vision camera captured video during the experiment from behind the mirror[see diagram here]. This used the program Isadora to detect movement using a ‘difference filter’ and building up an image using 'shimmer' and 'motion blur' filters with a long decay rate. An image builds up based on the collective movements of all 3 participants. A collective strange face. Emergent strange face from Proximity project Emergent strange face from Proximity project
Proximity – @ Paradise works 11/12/2019
GANZFELD Translucent White Hemispherical Domes x 2 45mm diameter. Handmade signed edition of 20. Image: Anya Stewart Maggs Images from the Proximity show at Paradis works; I created these handmade cardboard box containing two ‘Ganzfeld Hemispheres’. These are translucent white domes perfectly shaped and crafted to fit in the eye socket, with elastic strap and small ceramic bead for adjustment. Inside are a set of instructions. A signed edition of 20 was produced as a workshop resource. The work is activated through its use, and the experiences that come through its use, and continued practice. Ideally, it should be stored alongside other items in the medicine cabinet. [See the current version of this workshop - Perception without object] I also showed a series of transcripts
Schematic for mirror gaze experiment
Making as Paradox
I am pleased to be an invited speaker at the annual AHRC Student Conference, which will be held at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle. Here is the info... "The annual AHRC Student Conference, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle, on 26th October 2019 from 10:30 till 16:00 A conference for practice-based research in Art, Design and Craft. This conference for practice-based research in Art, Design and Craft aims to provide a dynamic forum in which to explore new ways of creating knowledge through practice, with a particular focus on the disruption of technology in our made environments. The conference will contain a day of presentations, discussion and debate around contemporary themes that draw on the paradoxes of making today and by doing
Seven Practical experiments
Images from 'Seven Practical Experiments' workshop as part of Sum total of all the actions at Rogue artists studios. 1: Feldenkrais - See notes on the inwardly generated image (by deformation of the eyeball) 2. Anomalous perception scale Spontaneous sensations 3: Action intention paradox [See developmental notes] Alien hand 4: Concerning the inwardly generated image [See notes on Ganzfeld variation 1] 5: You are the object of your own observation [See notes on the mirror gaze experiment] 6: You are the object of your own observation. Mirror Gaze experiments in near darkness. 6: Perception without object [The perception of spatial relationships in respect to the orientation of one's body despite distracting information] See notes on Ganzfeld variation 2 7. The permanent possibility of experience. An based on the experiments of Ernst Mach [Notes to come]
On the inwardly generated image
A visual perception activity based on an Eyeball ATM [awareness through movement] an activity used in Feldenkrais [Teresa Brayshaw led the original session at the [Re]Action lab atLMJU] This session had the addition of generating phosphines in the eyeball through excitation and deformation of the eyeball.
Concerning the inwardly generated image
Testing the autoscope
Extracts from an experiment/performance with the Autoscope, to see if the feeling of disembodied/remote presence is amplified through taking on a challenging physical task, and to explore how this affects our perception of the landscape. Thanks to Andrew P Brooks for film and photography. "Autoscope builds on laboratory-based simulations of out of body experiences; the portable device allows the participant to freely navigate the world, experiencing themselves in 3rd person, as part of the landscape via a live video feed to a head-mounted display. The visual mechanisms are important in this illusion, but tactile and sonic stimuli further strengthen the effects. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY7bs2Lih0Y&t=386s
Science re-imagined through the lens of somaesthetics
I find it helpful to think of physical metaphors to represent the research process. A phrase that comes up a lot in academic writing is this notion of an event or phenomenon through a 'lens'. How adopting a theoretical viewpoint can shed new light on a subject / revealing new meaning and understanding. In my own research, I have been interested in ‘somaesthetics' as a theoretical framework for my project. Science re-imagined through the lens of SOMAESTHETICS as illuminated by artistic research Somaesthetics, as defined by Richard Shusterman, foregrounds bodily perceptions and practices and how these contribute to knowledge and our construction of reality (1) specifically ‘pragmatic somaesthetics’ includes training and harnessing bodily experience. Furthermore, its practical element endorses bodily practice. This would
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Sum total of all the actions
Seven practical experiments
A manual for self-experimentation and a template for performance / A workshop on perceptual illusion and art. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/seven-practical-experiments-tickets-72221088219 'Seven practical experiments' is a new piece of work for by Antony Hall, developed through an exploration of perceptual illusion, and the methods used in experimental psychology. By taking part in this workshop, you will both 'experience' the work and 'perform' the experiments; in doing so you will become the work. The experiments will be preceded by a session of Feldenkrais led by Teresa Brayshaw. Feldenkrais is a method of enhancing self-awareness through movement and the heightening of bodily perception. Following this activity, you will then be guided through the 'seven practical experiments' and given space to reflect and discuss what you have experienced.
Proximity day 1 experiment 1
Mirror gaze experiment
The mirror gaze experiment requires the participant to sit in a near dark room and to stare at their own reflection for a set amount of time while listing to white noise. After only a short amount of time most people experience powerful illusions of facial distortion, grossly exaggerated features, faces of animals, the face of a lion or Darth Vader for example. These emerge as if from nowhere, disappearing at the slightest movement or eye blink, before manifesting new forms. These flowing cascades of illusory effects can elicit powerful emotional responses. In my own research, the mirror gaze experiment has resulted in significant illusory experiences across the full range of participants. I documented the way in which the illusory experience
Williams Clough ascent using Autoscope
Wanderer above the sea of fog
Notes from a day testing the Autoscope with Andrew Brooks. Here is our nod to the painting "Wanderer above the sea of fog" by Caspar David Friedrich 1818. The painting Juxtaposes 'Man' and his mastery of nature while simultaneously being a small and insignificant element of the overall landscape. The other mechanism at work is this inverted gaze; We see the back of the painted characters head, something that was quite unusual at the time. In doing this one idea is that we imagine ourselves as part of the image, putting our selves in the place of the depicted figure. It seems apt to recreate this, as one effect of the autoscope is this sensation that you have become part of the landscape and the feeling
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