proposal - computers for the rest of you

ELECTROMAGNETIC EGO DISRUPTION (EED)

(electromagnetic self portraits)

I'm interested in representations of the conscious mind as viewed through electronic media. Increasingly, human consciousness is represented through the notion of a screen. The psyche is surrounded by its own image, a situation made explicit in the work of pioneering artists working with the video medium such as Vito Acconci and Joan Jonas, producing what theorist Rosalind Krauss referred to as an "aesthetics of narcissism". Krauss writes, "Unlike the other visual arts, video is capable of recording and transmitting at the same time - producing instant feedback. The body is therefore as it were centered between two machines that are the opening and closing of a parenthesis. The first of these is the camera; the second the monitor, which re-projects the performer's image with the immediacy of a mirror." A kind of self-encapsulation emerges in this schema..."the body or psyche as its own self surround".

For my final project I would like to set up a video monitor / camera circuit...a chair facing a television monitor and a video camera so that the viewer can watch him or herself. Beside the chair will be an Electroencephelegraph which the viewer will attach to their head. The EEG will control the voltage of a DC motor, which will serve the purpose of an electromagnet. The electromagnet will be placed on top of the television monitor creating a disruptive effect upon the monitor image, not unlike the 1965 work of Nam June Paik. As the viewer watches themselves on the monitor, their brainwaves will control the amount of disruption of their self-image. The subject's ego representation will be simultaneously visible and illegible within a biofeedback loop.

inspiration:

joan joanas: vertical roll (1972)

nam june paik: magnet tv (1965)