HOLLOWCENE
AV Installation and Performance
lcd displays, parabola speaker, video projections, vr headset, eeg, 3d scanner, and computers
2017
PREVIEWS
2017 December 08, Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, IL
2017 August 11, Leroy Neiman Center Gallery, Chicago, IL
ABSTRACT
The goal of the research project is to investigate digitization and synthesis as a cognitive prosthesis of the human body. The research questions how to extend the body’s capabilities through technology in order to map out “post-evolutionary” strategies that envision “body-machine symbiosis.” The “post-evolutionary” approach confronts the image of the “obsolete body.” Technology acts as an offshoot of biology, redesigning the body, redefining what is human, through “human-machine interface.” As an additive process, the work integrates components that restructure the architecture of the body. The body as a structure is objectified, monitored, probed, and modified. Through performative procedures, the body as an object is scanned, amplified, accelerated, and diversified. No longer confined to its biological container, the “post-body” or “post-evolutionary” presents a paradigm shift in evolution and the potential for extruded awareness.
In specific, the research project examines enhancing the physical parameters of the body visually and acoustically. Cognitive prosthesis presents the opportunity for the “organ-nization” of the body. Mechanized and digital tools, instruments, components, and outputs perform as physical and virtual exoskeletons that power the human landscape. The body, through exertion and movement, emits the signals that activate the system, these same signals subsequently re-enter the body in a feedback loop. The result is a performance image that oscillates between the organic and the inorganic. The process is conceived as a mutual transfer between body and technology, engaged in an interplay of both controlled and involuntary reactions or learning.
The main components of the work involve the installation and synchronization of several projectors, a sound system, and sensors where space, light, audio, and movement merge to create a synesthetic experience. The body performs in a structured lighting installation that strobes in response to data stimulus from the body. The body in turn, absorbs these rhythmic signals, continuing to build a/synchronous discharge. The work also constitutes the construction of the physical architectural components, primarily, the performance pod. In addition, the work employs an armature plugged into the body and actuated by the body signals. These amplified body processes include: EEG brainwaves (electroencephalogram), ECG heartbeats (electrocardiogram), and EMG muscles (electromyogram). Lastly, the performance unfolds through four main acts, taking flight from the narrative: “How Do You Make Yourself a Body Without Organs?” The four acts are structured by cardinal orientation and their corresponding operations: 1. North: Amputation, 2. South: Discharge, 3. East: Synthesis, 4. West: Numinosity. The acts function as both medical operation and circadian ritual, enacting procedures in preparation for the rendering and regeneration of a virtual body. The performance probes the encounter of human synthesis and data to approach cognitive prosthesis as a numinous experience. As such, the project builds a technological philosophy, a cult of technology, aligned with the digitization of the mind as it transitions through ebbs, flows, rhymes, pulses, rates, and rhythms. The restructuring of the body through integrated body systems aims to amplify cognitive potential, to hybridize a “post-evolutionary” psychology, philosophy, and technology. Full Abstract
CREDITS
concept | GMM - Igraine Grey, Jonatan Martinez, Jacob Melgren
video | GREYMAR
EEG programming | Jacob Melgren
text | IGREY