On the 28th / 06/2020 para lab met up at Brunclough reservoir. Everyone was tasked with creating ’a device to test the material properties of a thing’. I produced an edition of 15 Meander~Delta objects [drawings and text contained within a petri dish] with which to collect things and make notes, I also brought a homemade tardigrade extractor [salad spinner]. The wind and rain on occasion proved to be too disrupting to do any detailed work – or too difficult even speak to each other… https://www.instagram.com/p/CB-3MrkllD6/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet https://www.instagram.com/p/CCBafc3F-2n/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
ART
Self-isolation
Ganzfeld Variations [Translucent paper cylinder method] From a series of workshop in the 'Experiments in Art and Perceptual Illusion' series, aimed at changing perceptions, heightening awareness, and ‘making strange’ of everyday experiences. Instructions for making: 1/ Cut section of greaseproof paper long enough to wrap around your head. 2/ Secure with tape to make a cylinder. 3/ Place overhead. You will sense the warmth of your own breath, and the loud sound of the paper near your ears. You will see colour and light but no detailed shapes. You will see the texture of the paper, but try to see beyond this. At first, this may feel claustrophobic [You might want to cut small holes for breathing or listening, but these should not
Measuring Anomalous experience.
Questionnaire results
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
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
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
Sum Total Of All The Actions 7
Sum Total Of All The Actions 6
Sum total of all the actions 1
Williams Clough ascent using Autoscope
Protected: Notes: Action in Perception
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Autoscope testing at studio
Autoscope prototype
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. Autoscopy can be described as the disembodied perception of seeing one own body from an elevated or distanced location outside the body. The phenomena of the ‘out of body experience’ during heightened states of heightened consciousness or near-death experience tend to have spiritual or shamanistic connotations, but in recent times science has done much to demystify this phenomenon, identifying the neural mechanisms responsible.
Action Intention Paradox
In this experiment, which is now renamed the 'Alien Hands Experiment' one participant [A] places their hands under a flat-screen monitor. They then see what seems to be their own hands under the screen when in fact these are someone else's hands [B] who is mirroring their actions. The effect can be quite uncanny especially if the appearance of the hand contrast with their own [in scale, age or colour. Participants work together to lead or mirror the movements of what appears to be their own hands under a screen. After a short time, participants experience strange sensations which oscillate between a loss of agency over their own hands and feeling agency over someone else's hands. Action Intention Paradox uses a
IR Camera hack
For the Mirror Gaze experiment, I need a camera that works in darkness and can pick up Infrared light. Most webcams have an IR filter. Many such as this Logitech HD webcam have instruction online. Turns out mine was a slightly different model to this and meant that the entire thing needed dismantling and the camera module had to be unsoldered to get to the filter.
Accelerometer experiments
Stereoscopic camera experiments
Meta-Perceptual Rail
The meta-perceptual rail is a linear track along which mount mirror apertures and other props and stimuli can be mounted. It is used for meta-perceptual experiments, testing the limits of visual and meta-perceptual experience. It can be used as an introspective device to explore metaphysical and somaesthetic questions of our experiences and location self in relation to the physical body. 'Such rails are typically made of wood and designed to be very stiff. The rail normally begins with a chin rest followed by a graduated grove extending from this point. This allows other features such as holders for perceptual stimuli, filters, apertures, mirrors and cameras to be bolted down and precisely shifted along the length of the rail.'
Marina Abramović – An Artist’s Life MANIFESTO
Thinking about manifestos, this seems to resonate somehow with both life and art. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Art+Meets+Science+and+Spirituality+in+a+Changing+Economy https://hirshhorn.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/An-Artists-Life-Manifesto.pdf
Autoscope backpack
My alloy backpack arrived and has proved perfect for the job of supporting a laptop and a 2m long boom. As an object, It certainly has a vintage feel and a clear aesthetic reference to Roman Signer. this seems entirely appropriate, something about the strangeness of the endeavour as well as the metaphorical notions of escape and travelling through the imagination.
Constructing a sense of self
"He felt dizzy, stood up, turned around, and saw himself still lying in bed. He was aware that the person in bed was him, and was not willing to get up and would thus make himself late for work. Furious at the prone self, the man shouted at it, shook it, and even jumped on it, all to no avail..." This article encapsulates some of the most important ideas, concepts and developments which lead towards the experiments on the simulation of out of body experiences. The article mentions Peter Brugger, Olaf Blanke and Thomas Metzinger, as well as some details of patient experiences, and the story of how this experiment came about. As well as the illusion of seeing one's self"autoscopy' There
Alfons Schilling
"Schilling's work is a discourse on the anatomy of illusion. a return to the physical experience of perception. this work locates the visual experience in the brain by completing its visual text there. The art of Schilling opens up a critical dialogue between the arts. This view of art as a sense experience, as the convergence of the work and the perceiver, which brings the work into existence, establishes the basis of that experience as a means of deconstructing reality and constructing through that experience a path toward a renewal, and the opening up of the perceptual (sense) experience." John G. Hanhardt, Curator of Film and Video, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 1977. Random Dot stereo works https://www.alfonsschilling.net/werke/randomdot-stereo/ http://www.vasulka.org/archive/Artists6/Schilling,Alphons/SchillingPoster2.pdf http://www.vasulka.org/archive/Artists6/Schilling,Alphons/ElectronicSpaces,etc.pdf An article discussing the
Eye tracking experiment planning
Inspired by last weeks conference and some examples of how artists are working with Eye Tracking, I went back to BEAM Lab the following week to start the process of learning how to set up my own experiment using Eye-tracking. My plan is to incorporate this with the strange face in the mirror experiment. My main problem is how do I calibrate the sensor - if I am to measure how they look at a reflection how do I map this precisely to the sensors. Normally the experiment has the participant looking directly at a screen surface, but how would this work with a reflected image? So I need to get a two-way mirror and perhaps get the participants to draw the