Transcript Transnet - Sarah Rubidge

Sarah Rubidge
Reader in Digital Performance
University College Chichester, UK: School of Visual and Performing Arts
open
Fugitive Moments
Transnet:
17th June 2005
Yves Klein
RP10 (1961)
James Turrell
Orca [Red] (1969)
1000 Names (1983)
Anish Kapoor
Time & Tide
Time & Tide (2001)
Sensuous Geographies (2003)
QuickTime™ and a
Sorenson Video decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Echoing Traces (2004)
QuickTime™ and a
Motion JPEG A decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Mirror Neurons
Vittorio Gallese et al. University of Parma, Italy, 1996.
Mirror Neurons are a group of neurons located in the premotor cortex which are
activated
not only
when an action is being performed
but also
when a subject is observing that action being executed by someone else.
References
Gallese, V., et al, (1996) “Action recognition in the premotor cortex.” Brain 119: 593-609
Rizzolatti, G. and Craighero, L. (2004) “The mirror neuron system.”
Annual Review of Neuroscence. Vol 27 pp169-192.
Time & Tide
“primordial, mysterious, beautiful, mesmerising”
“calming and serene”
“a peaceful and meditative experience - intense”
Sensuous Geographies
" an intriguing, elemental, absorbing experience”
“a powerful experience. More liberating than Mardi Gras”
“ my imagination and sense perception were really affected”
Consciousness and physiology:
Feeling what we perceive.
Damasio,
“
The Feeling of What Happens, 2001,
Looking For Spinoza,2004;
Gerald Edelman, Consciousness, From Matter to Imagination, 2001
Guy Claxton,
Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind, 1997
Fugitive moments
A collaboration between Drs Sarah Rubidge and Beau Lotto
Artistic intuitions led to the dream of creating a responsive installation
comprising intensely coloured moving abstract imagery the detail
and colour of which is modulated by the physiological responses of
the viewer to that imagery.
The programme upon which the installation is based will be an ALife or
AI programme which will adapt to the data which is being generated
by the viewer’s physiological responses throughout the interchange
between viewer and imagery.
Artist turns novice scientist…..
…ever trying to maintain her artistic vision
Fugitive Moments: Research Process
Scientific:
• The measurement of physiological response to imagery
• the development of non-encumbering sensors appropriate
for use in a public installation
Artistic:
1) The development of an AI/AL programme which will evolve
in response to the responses of the viewer to installation imagery
2) The design and development of a garment which will house
the sensors
Fugitive Moments
Aims of Preliminary Research
a) identify previous scientific experiments which investigate the hypothesis that
the perception of colour and motion affect human physiological systems directly.
b) develop ways of measuring physiological responses such that:
(i) appropriate physiological systems are used to measure the responses
(ii) the subtle responses engendered by these stimuli can be used as data
At the same time to forward the artistic research by:
c) developing an evolutionary AL programme which will respond with gorgeous
evolving imagery to the data garnered from viewers’ physiological responses
to colour and motion
Physiological Measures
Library research has indicated that SCL and HRV are the most
effective modes of measurement for my purposes as they are:
Pros: • known measures of emotional/affective responses.
• consonant with the intention of the installation (to elicit
non-conscious responses to stimulus
• the sensors are portable and lack intrusiveness
Cons: the readable level of physiological response to images with medium
to low level emotional content is very small
Stage 1: Initial Experiments
to ascertain:
a)
what the most effective, and appropriate, physiological response for
initiating and intervening in the evolution of an AL system might be
b) what kind of scaling needs to be written into the software to output
data with a sufficiently large numerical variation for responses to ‘low
emotion’ stimuli to have an effect on the AL programme
Stage 1: Initial Experiments
Measurement of physiological responses to images with
a) known high emotional content (erotic and horrific images)
b) medium to low level emotional content.
The software is designed to evolve a tendency to select the
imagery which engenders the most positive response in the
viewer.
Stage 1: Initial Experiments
Individuals are placed before a large Plasma screen on which are shown a
succession of still images taken from one of two sets of a) neutral and b)
emotionally arousing events.
Viewers’ baseline physiological state (SCL/HRV)is established, then their
physiological responses are measured and charted as they watch the images
(former are currently SCL and HRV)
Frequency of occurence of images from each of the two sets is assessed in
relation to the physiological data produced by the subject
Mirror Neurons
Vittorio Gallese et al. University of Parma, Italy, 1996.
Mirror Neurons are a group of neurons in the premotor cortex which are
activated
a) when an action is being performed AND
b) when a subject is observing that action being executed by someone else.
The pattern of neuronal activity incorporates the way the action feels, and
is almost identical in performer and observer
This insight had a precendent in dance writer John Martin’s notion of
Metakinesis (Martin 1930)
Stage 2: Interim research
Next stages in this facet of the research will entail:
1) experiments using still imagery saturated with colour to test intuition
that colour has a heightening effect on physiological responses
Precedents on the effect of colour on the physiology:
Féré mid-19th century, Detender et al (1999)
2) finding a more aesthetically pleasing means of gaining access to
the data
Stage 3: Final?
Experiments using moving imagery of dancers and sports people
and imagery which is diffused with colour
Aim: to test intuition that colour and motion have a heightened effect on
physiological responses which elicit feeling, emotion
Precedents on neurological responses to biological motion: Gallese (1996-2004),
Buccino, G. et al., (2001). Rizzolatti, G. and Craighero, L. (2004)
Precedents on neurological responses to biological motion specifically grounded
in dance:Calvo-Merino et al, UCL, 2005.
The final stage will be to measure the physiological responses to abstracted
imagery of human motion, suffused with strong colour
QuickTime™ and a
Motion JPEG B decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Stage 4:
Making Fugitive Moments
•Designing and creating the environment
•Designing and creating the garment
•Tweaking the AI/AL programme in collaboration
with its designer