In this project I would like to create images
with high emotivity through sound, in order to extend the system of human perception.
The aim of this work is to reach the maximum of auditory imagination and to
achieve a state of lucid dreaming or a suggestion where the sound will form
the content and will also offer space for individual creative associations.
The most fantastic creations engender inside us activated and influenced by
our surrounding [in this case by sound].
Due to social similarities in which we live, we have common processes of unconsciousness,
a certain vicarious symbolic for the reception of things around us, whereby
we understand them. These symbols are not only words, but also colors, sounds
or feelings. For example, when one can feel cold by hearing sounds vibrating
into his body, the physical manifestation of the brain is pursuant to other
emotional states or feelings.
To experience any states we need to receive information, to
sense. A sensation is a simple raw information received optically, acoustically,
haptically and so on. Sensations sit one for another sometimes ant thus they
create a cue. One can get a cue even if he didn’t perceive all the information
through all his perceptive processes. The human brain has it’s own inner world
which can be “viewed” through dreams, lucid dreams, hypnosis, transcendental
experiences from virtual reality or music and so on. I will make use of sound
incitation which should facilitate the stimulation of visual imagination. The
sound spread all over the space enables a very suggestive imagining with closed
eyes. One is perceiving 90% of all the conscious information mainly by eyesight.
If we constrain this sense temporarily the most emphatic cue [in this case the
sound] will replace it and a visual pseudo-image will originate.
To reach a pseudostate of a certain kind of experience I will
create sounds/music from the measured values of physical response to the sound
of subjectively described emotive states of measured people. I will try to measure
these values/frequencies with EEG [electroencephalograph] and EKG [electrocardiograph]
and to observe them from the changes of breath frequency. Emotions are an important
part of our experience. Our emotions are subconsciously associated with low
frequency of heartbeat with the intensity cca 70 - 240 impulses/vibrations per
minute. Palpitation is subconsciously interconnected with great physical activity
effort. There is no need to mention states like fear, joy, pain, excitement,
hysteria,… leading to heart frequency of great intensity and hyperventilation.
The emotions are a very important part of the project, due to which a person
is easily submerged into the produced sensations.
To solve this project out there is need of special knowledge from the domain of neurology, acoustic, psychology and computer [software and hardware] programming. Despite the fact that during my work on this project I accumulated a lot of information from all these disciplines, I think a permanent collaboration with specialists and professionals in the field is necessary.
I expect the final result of this project to
be also a theoretical study containing all the information, my researches and
conclusions about this problematic and not only the environmental interactive
installation aimed to offer the viewer/listener new experiences. The theoretical
part will be published on the Internet, together with all the instructions and
information concerning the functionality of the project.
As long as this research will lead to positive solutions concerning this problematic,
it would be possible to use the results for further studies. The psychotherapy
could take advantage of it in practice: the emotionally stimulated sound based
visualization could be one of the topics for personality assay. This way of
analysis could thus become a method of therapy such as art therapy or conversation
based therapy. This project could also be a step ahead in functionality of human
understanding in the context of mentality transference research and in the research
of functionality of human system between the new, artificial intelligence and
the man.
The physical part of the project:
The first physical part is the surround system located around the body to provide the best possible space sound. An advantage is a relative elimination of movement of the listener towards the system. If the listener is out of the optimal area of hearing the effect of precise definition of sound decreases rapidly together with its spatiality.
The second physical part of the project is an
air mattress for reclining. It supports the whole body, the line of the spine
keeps its natural shape and it does not interrupt the blood circulation. In
the lying position the differences of the blood flow are almost nullified and
that contributes to easier and more equal blood oxidation and therefore to lower
the load of the breathing apparatus. The spine and the muscles are relieved
together with the nervous system. Relaxing affects positively the psychic and
it’s the base for a complete experience. The air filling the mattress functions
also as a thermoisolant: the temperature of the body is naturally maintained
so the algidity doesn’t occur in the course of a longer practicing.
Low frequencies, interconnected with emotions, are emitted down to the flexible
mattress so that by means of a direct contact of the body with the couch I can
stimulate the visitor straightway. These low frequencies are audible just in
case of a high intensity, which doesn’t have to be healthy or pleasant for the
ear. I will eschew this annoying fact with the help of this straight contact
of body with the mattress. Thus, the frequencies, even if they are very low,
are obviously felt tactically and the psychophysical experience of the sound
is increased.
In the end I would like to quote the new media guru and theorist Marshall McLuhan:
“The technological development tends to a bigger production by fewer means. We can overcome this trend only by a straight insertion of information into human nervous system. If we are standing afore the “age of the cerebral transplantation”, it can still happen that the intellectual elite of the epoch will provide “cerebral imprints” to feed new generations. Instead of buying Shakespeare or Erasmus, one will have the possibility to acquire the real brain impression of their perception and erudition through electroencephalography.” [Marshall McLuhan, 1970]
“ After spreading or transferring our central
nervous system into electromagnetic technology follows the transference of our
consciousness into the computer world.” [Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan,
1964]