More dissertaion thoughts

At the moment my theoretical enquiry and my practical project seem to be going in quite different directions but hopefully they will marry up somewhere down the road…

Anyway, here are some of my thoughts on my theoretical enquirey, and again i have a worry that i am deviating out of the sphere of fine art and into psychology/psychiatry/sociology/anthropolgy etc, but then again i have heard it said that fine art at its best is a kind of applied philosophy and philosophy literally trnslates as “the love of knowledge”.

So researching into the understanding of schizophrenia I found some interesting points. Firstly there is huge contraversy over teh diagnosis of the condition for several reasons: first, it would seem that everyone in the world has “schizophrenic” thoughts and beliefs from time to time and that in the end the only thing which classifies some one as “ill” and some one as “well” is the degree to which they hold their “unfounded beliefs”. So the diagnosis is based on a sliding scale rather than crossing a definate line. Then there is the fact that there is neither a known physical/biological root cause for the condition or any known physical/biological test that one can do to identify the illness, and infact all diagnoses are made on the basis of patient reports, making the diagnosis highly subjective. Add to that the fact that the term schizophrenia seems to encompase a number of conditions, several of which can have distinct and exclusive symptoms, and then the idea that an empirical diagnosis can be used across the board comes into question.

a pertinant example of the difficulty in diagnosing the condition comes from the history of the DSM manual which is the american psychiatry guide to classifiying mental illnesses. When a study was done comparing the US diagnosis and frequency of diagnosis with that of the UK a huge disparity was found which ended up causing the whole of the DSM-2 book to be revised into a new version, DSM-3, just over the  problem of diagnosing schizophrenia.

Then just to add to the trouble diagnosing the condition as an illness, several countries have used the termas an excuse to silence political dissedents:

“The diagnosis of schizophrenia has been used for political rather than therapeutic purposes; in the Soviet Union an additional sub-classification of sluggishly progressing schizophrenia was created. Particularly in the RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic), this diagnosis was used for the purpose of silencing political dissidents or forcing them to recant their ideas by the use of forcible confinement and treatment.^[43] In 2000 there were similar concerns regarding detention and ‘treatment’ of practitioners of the Falun Gong movement by the Chinese government. This led the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on the Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists to pass a resolution to urge the World Psychiatric Association to investigate the situation in China.^[44]“

From wikipediea

Schizophrenia is regarded as “the greatest mystery of modern psychiatry”.

While it is known that there is some connection between dopamine transmission in the brain and the condition the exact relationship remains shrouded in mystery as researchers have experimented with blocking the very dopamine repceptors in the brain to which the correlation was traced, with little or no effect on the condition of the patients.

Here is another extract from the wikipedia on shizophrenia which further illustrates my points:

“

Schizophrenia as a diagnostic entity has been criticised as lacking in scientific validity or reliability,^[29][30] part of a larger criticism of the validity of psychiatric diagnoses in general. One alternative suggests that the issues with the diagnosis would be better addressed as individual dimensions along which everyone varies, such that there is a spectrum or continuum rather than a cut-off between normal and ill. This approach appears consistent with research on schizotypy and of a relatively high prevalence of psychotic experiences^[31][32] and often non-distressing delusional beliefs^[33] amongst the general public.^[34]

Another criticism is that the definitions used for criteria lack consistency;^[35] this is particularly relevant to the evaluation of delusions and thought disorder. More recently, it has been argued that psychotic symptoms are not a good basis for making a diagnosis of schizophrenia as “psychosis is the ‘fever’ of mental illness — a serious but nonspecific indicator”.^[36]

Perhaps because of these factors, studies examining the diagnosis of schizophrenia have typically shown relatively low or inconsistent levels of diagnostic reliability. Most famously, David Rosenhan’s 1972 study, published as On being sane in insane places, demonstrated that the diagnosis of schizophrenia was (at least at the time) often subjective and unreliable.^[37] More recent studies have found agreement between any two psychiatrists when diagnosing schizophrenia tends to reach about 65% at best.^[38] This, and the results of earlier studies of diagnostic reliability (which typically reported even lower levels of agreement) have led some critics to argue that the diagnosis of schizophrenia should be abandoned.^[39]“

So how does this relate to my dissertation?

Well i’m not sure all I know is that there seems to be some kind of link between schizophrenia and the experiences gained from the shamanic use of strong halluciongens, such a the DMT found in the shamanic brew “ayahusca”.

And its is often stated in academic shamanic texts that “the shaman swims and the schizophrenic drowns in the same mystical waters”.

The place where this correlates to my practice is that i am trying to develope electronic immersive tools that either siumlate, stimulate or at least augment the hallucinatory experience.

A final point is that there seems to be a huge cultural revival in interest shamanic and hallucinatory practices, happening in the world at the moment with books on shamanism and inductory courses springing up with greater and greater frequnecy and popularity.

In the end i think my enquiry will be to look at the value the the hallucinatory experience and the schizophrenic experince hold for the course of fine art and technology, and culture in general.

Update

So I completed the VJ box project and gathered video documentation of the project (unfortunately filmed on an NTSC camera – doh! – so have sent tape off to be converted to pal).

The project was a real success, as far as I am concerned. I think the reason I was given a relatively low mark for the project was because the theortical side of it seemed a bit flimsy and tenuous. And infact, although I had always seen the project as a kind of simulator for a halluncinatory state of consciousness, as the project neared completion and as I dialogued with my tutor chris speed, and started reading up on the “philosophy of mind” I realised that there were deeper implications.

Infact it got me thinking along the lines that I could start building models out of plastic and electronics (and audio/video equipment) that exemplified well defined stances in “the philosophy of mind” such as “material dualism” which states that mind is merely a product of the matter of the brain. So for that stance I could create a model which had a physical basis like a big white box, signifying the “body/brain”, and that the “mind”, signified by a video projection could emanate from that structure, much like the current box project. Or as another example there is the “mental idealist” stance which asserts that the physical world exists only in the mind, in which case i could create a video projection which created an illusion of a 3D object. And so these basic examples show how the different philosophical stances on the “mind/body” problem can be represented with different physical and “projection based” interactive models.

But the more i think about that kind of stuff the more boring it sounds. I am a very practical thinker, and as much as i love deep thinking and art work with real meaning, at a fundamental level i think if a work is not fun and sensually appealing then it is a waste of time because it will never draw in an audience inthe first place to then concider the work on a deeper philosophical level. Its got to be fun dam it!

And at the same time another practical idea has occurred to me (characteristically ambitious):

A pair of gloves, that are covered in LEDs and bio sensors. I have to research whether these things have already been doen to death or whether there is still a foot hold left for a cowboy like me to make an  origional(ish) intervention.

So the glove has flex sensors in the fingers, which detect the flex of the fingers, and buttons on the end of the fingers which can be pressed against the thumb or other opposable objects to trigger an “on” signal. So the dynamic degree of flex mesured in the fingers, and the binary on/off signals of the finger tip buttons is sent to an arduino chip which then sends the signal to a “Xeebee” chip (which allows data to be sent wirelessly across a network) which sends the information to a reciever which sends it into a computer and into max/msp which interprets the data into midi and uses the midi data to control VJ software. The data is also analysed by the max/msp patch and sent back to the glove to light up the leds in a certain sequence, in correspondance to the origional data gathered by the glove. So as the fingers extend to their fullest from a closed fist, a sequence of white LEDs could light up one by one along the fingers untill at full extension of the fingers the LEDs had lit up all the way to the ends of the fingers.

The glove could also gather other bio data which could also be represented by LEDs in the glove and audio visual displays coming from the networked computer terminal.

Then if the glove was used as a performance tool or a social/personal development tool in a group communication context in conjunction with immersive video projections and a mediated enviroment then these gloves could enable people to start developing new non verbal languages as they discovered new and innovative ways to communicate.

Then the glove would serve as a prototype for a full body suit.

Dissertation thoughts

I now want to title my dissertation:

The Technology of Trance, Madness and Meditation.

I want to look at the tools and skills involved in and produced by these altered states of consciousness.

The etymology of the word technology means “the study of skills/tools”.

In some modern forms of psychology and linguistcs thought processes and neural structuring are thought of as forms of technology.

As such i will treat the neurological effects of these states as a form of technology.

There is the technology that is used to induce these states:

Trance: drums, certain drugs, hypnosis etc

Madness: certain drugs, stress, genes ect

Mediation: singing bowls, crystals, chanting, certain physiological postures ect

I am only interested in looking into the form of madness known as schizophrenia, as this is the only form of madness, apart from autism, known to cause direct alterations in the percieved sensory data of the experiencer. I am not interested in looking at autism because the distortions and alterations in the autistics perception have the effect of numbing ones perception of the world, while i am interested in looking at ways in which one perception of sensory data is heightened, even if it is internal sensory data like thoughts and “visions”.

To conclude i will see if I can find any common threads that run through the technologies of all three states of consciousness, and any glaring exeptions.

My thesis is that there is a common thought process/emotional state associated with all three states and that infact they are all different methods (intentionally induced or otherwise) of accessing, gaining insight into, and re-programming the unconscious mind.

VJ Box update

I have been working away in the lab building a VJ box.

I have been colaborating with a structural engineer. The box is nearly complete.

It is sturdy and portable, able to flat pack down into the boot of a car.

Its surface is covered in buttons and it has a projection pointing onto its interface , so that your hand is immersed in video images when you reach to press a button.

The box has an interactive fractal image on its surface, which shimmers and cascades in response to your hands movement and presence.

The buttons trigger video clips with audio on to the projection on the surface.

The audio from the video makes perfect syncronised, in time, music.

There are also blinking LED lights all over the surface of the box. The LEDs cascade in different patterns depending upon which button you press.

It is beautiful.

VJ Box

On the practical side my plans for a portable interactive VJ Box are coming together. I have purchased the electronic components, and the wood worker i have chosen to collaborate with is now free to spend some time developing the project. I need to look into patenting the design, with a veiw to possibly mass producing them one day. I have some 3D graphic designs of the box that i will try to post up here soon.

Happy new year i-dat!!!

I have been reading around my dissertaion topic over christmas and disscussing my ideas with Geoff Cox and my Dad (who is an academic). I am interested in drug induced hallucination and schizophrenia in art. Also i know that looking at this field in terms of “value” is useful as it helps to pin down the information. Then i have to ask: what kind of value? Social? Finincial? Initially I was thinking that financial value would be good because you can quantify it quite clearly, but then i realised that this was actually opening the paper up to all kinds of things, like ecomomics, that i am just not interested in. Maybe i can talk about the finacial value of hallucination/schizophrenia influenced art, in terms of social value. What is social value? How do i quantify it? I am still working on these questions. Here are a few (uncited as of yet) examples that i am aware of that initally inform my interest in this topic:

1) “Outsider Art” made by institutionalised schizophrenics in a European Country is sold at auction for high prices. Of worthy note is a late British painter, who suffered from schizophrenia, called Richard Dadd who despite spending most of his latter life in institutions is renowned for the painterly work he made during that time, some of which i believe was on display in the Tate Modern in London over the christmas period. This would indicate a high value for such art works.

2) Pencil portrait sketches made by an artist who was under the influnce of LSD, in a book i own by the famous LSD researcher Grof, are useful in revealing the degree to which such a drug can reduce an artists ability to make clear depections in his.her chosen medium, but are actually quite badly drawn pictures and as such would be of little value outside of this specific context. This would indicate that art made while under the influnce of hallucinogenic drugs is of little or no value.

3) Early man is belived to have made many of the cave paintings that we find still in existance today, while under the influence of hallucinogenic mushrooms. These works are reported to be of high value to the tribe as they belived the experiences, and art works generated there of  were part of a process to communicate with the “spirits ” that the tribe believed in, with a veiw to instigating the “spirits” help with things like crop production that would ensure the prosperity of the tribe. Wether true or not these hallucinatory communications with the spirit world are assumed to be of great value to the tribe. This would suggest a high value for art made while under the influence of hallucionogenics.

It is important to me to make distinct the categories of art made while under the inflence of hallucinogens/in the throws of a schizophrenic episode, and art made afterwards from memory of such experiences. I would like to rule out the category of art made by people who have never had such experiences and are simply drawing on the reports of others.

Hallucination/Schizophrenic art is popularly seeing as frivorolrus and/or of little value, but it is my intention to review the history of such artworks and asses their true value, with the belif that it has actually played an important role in art history.

Drawing a fence around my area of research

I have been reading up on a few books over christmas. The one i find most interesting is Peter Chadwicks Schizophrenia: the search for dignity. The book looks for “credits” to being a sufferer of schizophrenia. His scientific research indicates that such credits include enhanced empathetic abilitys and a connection with synchronicity. He also arges that there are signs of an increased level of creativity. What does this mean? Why would a pathology lead to an enhanced ability to read other peoples emotions?

Anyway I have realised the “zone” of my research question: Schizophrenia as seen through the eyes of phenemenology, neuro-psychology, and philosophy of mind.

I think descartes theories of dualism may be very relevant here as some of the scientific books calim that schizophrenia occurs at the place where the brain meets the mind.

Is schizophrenia just in the mind?

Is anything not just in the mind?

Is the mind puerly physical?

Is the body and the whole world just in the mind?

How do i value my work?

I just had a tutorial with Mike Punt “the reader” at i-dat. He asked me how do i value my work? I stumbled. “Just on aesthetics” i said. “Yes”, he said “but that doesn’t mean anything”. Well bloody hell I don’t know. Up untill now i have just judged my work on how pretty it is and how striking and unique it is. Flashy images: tick, Swirling colours: tick, morphing intracate patterns that move: tick, live musicians: tick, live dancer: tick, audience clap at the end: tick, operated the technology in performance as well as hoped (how do you denfine that?!): tick. Basically the way i have judged my work’s value so far has just been on how beautiful i thought it was and how much love the audience or user give me once they’ve seen it. But Mike says I need “an external set of criteria that assess the value of the work.” I respect what he is saying but how the hell do i do that? Like what? A list of tick boxes and if i tick mostly A’s then the work has succeded? Well… whats the tick box for it being very visually and auditorially pleasing? Would you rate you level of pleasure at 1, 2, or 3? Thats silly, what am i going to do; go round handing out questionaires that break the audiences phenomenological experince of beauty and pleasure down into quantifiyed set units????

I admit that I am being silly and truth be told i realise fully that what Mike is hinting at is the way forward for my work, but as a new masters student busy acclimatizing to MA level study in Art its a bit of a weird idea that there would be a defined system for analysing wether an art work was of high value, to me or anyone else. I mean my work doesn’t really make money at the moment, so i can’t pin its value down to hard currency, like the brownie selling freshly squeezed lemonade can.Even if I wasmaking money from my work i still don’t think i would want to judge its total value by the money it made. Microsoft make lots of money, but they are basterds and their fine art is poo (design work is pretty good though – if you like it with a thin facade of easy, fun clenliness for all, and underneath a dirty barbaric mega system for f*cking over the worlds poor and just every body.)

What am i trying to say?

Well just that i realise i need some kind of criteria to judge the value of my work but just that where i am right now i don’t know where to start.

Money doesn’t work for me on this one.

Audience heads might be something but thats not the actuall work itself and besides Van Goff died inobscurity, did his paintings get proportionately better depending on how many peole liked them. NO. A good piece of art should be a good piece of art even if it falls in a wood and no-one see’s it.

What about performance technique. Well that sounds closer to me, but the audience doesn’t really have to be aware of how well i execute my performance technique in order to judge wether the image on the screen is pretty enough to give them the level of pleasure that will bring them back to pay for another event.

But now i’m talking about the audience, money and prettyness again.

Oh God!

I need help.

I’m confused again…

I’m sure i will find the answers to these questions and thanks to Mike for pointing me in the right direction where i’m sure Geoff, M.Phillips and Chris will illuminate further.

I’m confused…

I have too many ideas. I want to make an led light suit that reacts to bio feedback, but then i also want to make an elaborate grande theatre production that features real-time generative video and audio, but then i just want to make flash animations for the web, but then i want to make a flashy interactive VJ box, and i’m starting to do performance writing what ever the hell that is and much more… AAAAgh.

I’m joking, really i love being swamped by ideas.

Also my practice and my theoretical approach don’t seem to match up, and their both full of holes, but increadibly powerful none the less.

For the invisible architechture moduale i want to make a piece about schizophrenia, witchcraft and technology, but the problem is that, in practical terms, i’m just going to make a clever VJ box that has a video projection on its own interface that reacts to movement and presence. The box will have buttons to press that will trigger short video clips with sound on to the surface of the interface and over the arms of the users. The problem is between making something that looks good and flashy and fun / and something that actually carries any of the meanings that i want across to the user????

I’m confused…. (in a good way:)

Reading

I am actually reading a hell of alot of material at the moment. Lagely about schizophrenia, halluciongens, neurology and cartesial dualism. Of particular interest is “Anti-Oedipus : Capatalism and schizophrenia” by Gutari and Deluze. I think for my syntesis module I want to talk about the similarities between the veiw of schizophrenia in popular culture VS in scientific litrature.