Simon Biggs
Research Professor
edinburgh college of art
s.biggs@eca.ac.uk
www.eca.ac.uk
Creative Interdisciplinary Research into CoLlaborative Environments
www.eca.ac.uk/circle/
simon@littlepig.org.uk
www.littlepig.org.uk
AIM/Skype: simonbiggsuk
From: Sarah Jane Pell <sarahjanepell@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: <research@sarahjanepell.com>, YASMIN DISCUSSIONS
<yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr>
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 2009 21:00:23 -0700 (PDT)
To: YASMIN DISCUSSIONS <yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr>
Subject: Re: [Yasmin_discussions] artists workng with scientists in extreme
environments
Of course, I am reminded of artists/divers exploring the sublime depths
whilst experiencing nitrogen narcosis: the rapture of the deep... ahhhhmmmm
www.faqs.org/health/topics/13/Nitrogen-narcosis.html
--- On Sun, 4/10/09, Simon Biggs <s.biggs@eca.ac.uk> wrote:
From: Simon Biggs <s.biggs@eca.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: [Yasmin_discussions] artists workng with scientists in extreme
environments
To: "YASMIN DISCUSSIONS" <yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr>
Received: Sunday, 4 October, 2009, 1:59 AM
It could be asserted that exploring extreme states of mind (as opposed to
the brain) is standard operating artists procedure (SOAP). The mind is
arguably an imagined thing and artists routinely seek to imagine it in its
strangest or most extreme state, whether as something isolated (mind as
location of the individual) or networked (the mind as instantiation of the
social being). As an artist I consciously seek to do this, imagining myself
into a mental state. When it starts to feel dangerous that¹s when I think I
might be getting somewhere.
There is also a long history of artists who have been regarded as rather
mad. Whether they were so because they were ill (in conventional medical
terms John Martin, for example - which is deeply problematic for anyone of
a Foucauldian or Langian persuasion) or pushing their ideas to extremes
(such that people thought them mad) or simply taking too many drugs (that
seems to render other people mad).
Turning back to extreme environments, artists have similarly explored these,
even when the places they visited were either not that extreme or were
actually imaginary. Here I am thinking of the Romantics, with Caspar David
Friedrich or Beethoven seeking to evoke what they felt to be the sublime
(extreme) in nature and the (extreme) states this transported them to. There
was no need for them to go to the Moon to achieve this although perhaps in
our over-stimulated society this is the reason artists are seeking to do
this. They are simply exhibiting our shared symptoms of environmental
disassociation.
Best
Simon
Simon Biggs
Research Professor
edinburgh college of art
s.biggs@eca.ac.uk
www.eca.ac.uk
Creative Interdisciplinary Research into CoLlaborative Environments
www.eca.ac.uk/circle/
simon@littlepig.org.uk
www.littlepig.org.uk
AIM/Skype: simonbiggsuk
From: roger malina <rmalina@alum.mit.edu>
Reply-To: YASMIN DISCUSSIONS <yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr>
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 2009 17:15:19 +0200
To: YASMIN DISCUSSIONS <Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr>
Subject: [Yasmin_discussions] artists workng with scientists in extreme
environments
yasminers
here is another thought- are extreme environments only
physical/geographical
exploration- or can one also explore extreme mental states ?
yesterday i was with christian xerri who is a neuroscientist in marseille
and
jim gimzewksi
were were discussing the work that xerri does with alzheimers
patients
christian's work includes looking at ways the brain re organises
itself after trauma
*Curre*
*Research topics *
1. Experience-dependent malleability of somatosensory cortical maps
during development and maturation.
2. Postlesion remodeling of somatosensory maps after brain damage.
3. Spatio-temporal coding of tactile inputs within cortical networks.
4. Biochemical and morphological mechanisms involved in somatosensory map
reorganization.
5. Elaboration and recognition of haptic and visual forms: a fMRI study.
christian's son your is an artist and art therapist and they are working on
art science collaborations
xerri's lab has developed interactive software tools that are used to help
patients with impaired
memory etc
a related connection is how humans in extreme environments have modified
percetion
, i heard a talk by michel marcelin who mentioned that at high altidue
vision is affected ( see for instance
http://ajplegacy.physiology.org/cgi/pdf_extract/140/3/354 )
so for the discussion i thought i would introduce the topic of modification
of mental states
in extrement enviroments, but also extreme zones of mental states themselves
as part
of this discussion
roger
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In
the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and
password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your
e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the
unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
HOW TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set
Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number
SC009201
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In
the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and
password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your
e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the
unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
HOW TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set
Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
____________________________________________________________________________
______
Get more done like never before with Yahoo!7 Mail.
Learn more: http://au.overview.mail.yahoo.com/
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In
the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and
password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your
e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the
unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
HOW TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set
Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC009201
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
HOW TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
