Tonight’s exploration ( originally from a sketch ) ; I am with two Dreamachines, 78rpm and 45rpm for dual asynchronous peripheral flicker, Alpha-Theta brainwave stimulation: undulating relaxation .. entrainment with eyes closed. Entraining the analogue way. Respect to Brion Gysin, Ian Somerville for their design intuitively and synchronously created the same time as Dr Grey Walter described the hallucinations and visual side effects of ‘flicker’ and ‘form constants’ seen behind closed eyes.
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Luciana Haill is concerned in esoteric ways of accessing ‘The Visionary’. To do this she explores and measures brainwaves during liminal stages of sleeping and specifically focuses on ‘Lucid Dreaming’ and further entraining brainwaves associated with ‘The Hypnagogic’ state experienced as we drift off. This stage is marked by a decrease in Beta and an increase in Theta brainwaves, so she sets about emulating this in fully awake participants who experience her art. She is artist in residence in the Department of Psychology in Greenwich University London, and her artworks are research-led, developing following encounters and (where possible) training with pioneers in her field. Her participatory installations, talks and performances have taken place internationally including Mexico City, Hawaii and Slovenia. Her techniques involve Neurofeedback with EEG (passive, surface mounted brainwave monitoring) – a training process using technology to provide you with more information about what your brain is doing. and interviewing participants about their experiences. She researches the neural correlates, and creates stimulating contemporary sensory light and sound entrainment devices in installations expressing the surreal psycho-phenomenological characteristics preceding an Altered State of Consciousness, such as within a vivid / lucid dreaming in her Fine Artworks.
I wanted to share this photo again as I particularly like this mediation of my artwork ‘The Phrontesterion’ – it captures the essence of biofeedback / neurofeedback in a digitally enabled and augmented portraiture medium, with a nod to the classic genres in painting, sculpture and observation / witness / patient ( by the next participant waiting in the wings ) We the audience witness the fleeting changes from Beta, Alpha and Theta into Hypnagogic brainwaves undulate on a screen, as the percipient, the solo audience member being monitored engages in a discrete interaction with the sound of their own thoughts, frontal lobe decisions and potential surreal reveries sonified !
