John Cages 4.33 piece is about looking at silence and is explained and preformed with the idea that the performance shifts from the musicians to the audience when nothing is played. The sounds of the audience make up the performance and it varies each time depending on what the audience do (for example coughing or moving babes crying etc) I found this interesting as when i was looking into this piece i was connecting it to the idea of the void (the silence being the void, death) however this idea of silence not existing and there there will always be some kind of noise present made me think about the potentials of the void and how we perceive the void.
Death, The Void.
After the death of his old friend, Albert Einstein said “Now Besso has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us … know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
Robert Lanza M.D On Biocentrism:
We believe in death because we have been taught that we will die. And because we know our bodies die and associate ourselves with our bodies. Biocentrism is a new theory of thinking that tells us death may not be the the terminal event we may think. if you add life and consciousness to the equation, you can explain some of the biggest puzzles of science. For instance, it becomes clear why space and time – and even the properties of matter itself – depend on the observer. It also becomes clear why the laws, forces, and constants of the universe appear to be exquisitely fine-tuned for the existence of life.
Until we recognize the universe in our heads, attempts to understand reality will remain a road to nowhere.
Consider the weather ‘outside’: You see a blue sky, but the cells in your brain could be changed so the sky looks green or red. In fact, with a little genetic engineering we could probably make everything that is red vibrate or make a noise, or even make you want to have sex like with some birds. You think its bright out, but your brain circuits could be changed so it looks dark out. You think it feels hot and humid, but to a tropical frog it would feel cold and dry. This logic applies to virtually everything. Bottom line: What you see could not be present without your consciousness.
Life is an adventure that transcends our ordinary linear way of thinking. When we die, we do so not in the random billiard-ball-matrix but in the inescapable-life-matrix. Life has a non-linear dimensionality – it’s like a perennial flower that returns to bloom in the multiverse.
“The influences of the senses,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson “has in most men overpowered the mind to the degree that the walls of space and time have come to look solid, real and insurmountable; and to speak with levity of these limits in the world is the sign of insanity.”
This article showed some interesting views on the concepts of reality that we poses today and how our perceptions of the world are varied and how the idea of death that we have could be wrong or too firmly fixed onto one concept. This was an interesting article to start an investigation into this idea of death and void life void and to start building ideas for my project.
After doing some additional research on the mysteries of death and looking into what lies beyond the void for us i discovered some interesting research about the chemical reactions that happen in the body when a person dies.
Dr. Rick Strassman's DMT research:
Dimethyltryptamine (or DMT) is a psychedelic drug that can induce out of body or near death experiences, intense hallucinations and even apparent alien abductions. If you smoke it, you will appear to pass out for several minutes, where you'll have euphoric insights into other dimensions. In the US, Dimethyltryptamine is classed as an illegal Schedule I drug.We produce a small amount of dmt in our sleep which induces dreams but it can also be taken in higher quantities as a drug Volunteers of stramans experiments would see phsycodelic colours and hallucinations some would describe themselves as being transported and feeling euphoric, some described bizarre visions of alien life forms - even subjects that wanted and fully expected to see angels and fairies saw other-worldly beings. It provokes the question: is DMT like a door to an alternate reality? Does it facilitate lucid dreams, the out-of-body state and glimpses into other dimensions?
Yet, according to a study by Alexander Shulgin, we produce DMT in our bodies naturally. This conclusion is based on that fact that volunteers didn't build up a biological tolerance over time. What is this mysterious substance and how is it connected with dreams, death and OBEs? Here we'll explore the facts of The Spirit Molecule.
His studies (along with numerous others tidies on the subject of dmt) show that when a person dies their brain produces a large amount of DMT from the pineal gland and creates an enormous hallucination (opening the doors of perception). people that have been pronounced dead but later come back to life have said they could see the room they were in and described specific details while others have explained that they traveled far beyond their surroundings to places in which everything was abstract, colourful and with feelings of pure love.
This studies suggests the idea of traveling or being transported through the 'Void ' that we see as death by the high levels of DMT to something unexplainable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKdfYmej7Uw (Documentary i watched about the theory of the connection between DMT and 'the spirit world' 'another dimension')
Enter The Void By Gaspar Noe:
This is a scene from Enter The Void By Gaspar Noe. It shows a serious of abstract colours moving in subtle flowing motions however that also seem to have an almost electrical quality to them. The colours change and merge together creating beautiful formations. My thoughts on this is that it almost reminds me in a way of internal human body nervous system sending impulses across the body. It also reminds me of outer space and the movement of galaxys etc.
Ancient Egyptians believed that hallucinations where connected to that of spiritual nature and used to sit in dark rooms for long periods of time in order to experience the effects of DMT, The prolonged
period of time in the dark was said to have induced a releasion of some DMT. They would also
consume the plant 'Blue Lotus' again a hallucinogenic plant and it was related to spiritual sacrament.
Native Americans:
For many American Indian cultures, the focus of religion, particularly the ceremonies, was on maintaining harmony with the world. The focus was on living in harmony today, not on death. For
many Indians there was an awareness of death and a vague concept of something happening after death, but this was not dogmatic. They felt that they would find out when they die and in the meantime this is something they have no way of knowing anything about and therefore they should not waste time thinking about it.
They believed in the cycle of life and realised that their were many cycles in everything in nature, day and night, seasons etc and many had the belief of reincarnation (being born again after death). The circle was a sacred symbol of the balance of life. Much of their art was based around the conception of the circle of life even that of how they set up camp (all the tents in a circle). Again with the Indians there is this concepts of the great unknown, yet they believe they can connect slightly to this unknown world with the use of hallucinogenic drugs, similar to the idea and studies into the effect and connections between DMT and 'The Void' (death).
Tibetan book of death
Hearing in the Bardo from Isaac McCardle on Vimeo.
"Bardo Thodol", is traditionally believed to be the work of the legendary Padma Sambhava in the 8th century A.D. The book acts as a guide for the dead during the state that intervenes death and the next rebirth. He is considered to be one of the first persons to bring Buddhism to Tibet. The Bardo Thodol is a guide that is read aloud to the dead while they are in the state between death and reincarnation in order for them to recognize the nature of their mind and attain liberation from the cycle of rebirth.The book is about the stages a person goes through after death. Each of the stages are to give the person a change to learn and be compassionate (a judgement in a way) in order for the person to achieve the atman (become enlightened). If the person does not do this then they are reborn and the cycle of life and death with continue until the person achieves this state.
I think this idea is closely linked to that of the native americans and their idolisation and value of the cycle and its relevance to life.
Painting by Eric Wayne
http://artofericwayne.com/2014/01/18/death-dissolution-and-the-void/
This is a painting i found made by Eric Wayne.
He writes about his views and intensions on how he perceived his creation:
the image doesn’t portray an instant, but a timeline (ex., there are not two heads but just one in different stages of disintegration).The layer has a hole where the person is crossing through, causing a temporary tear in the fabric of reality (for lack of a better phrasing), and ripples in the surface of the immaterial realm.
On the right is a giant ball or cavity, depending on how you look at it (a deliberate optical illusion on my part), that represents the overpowering, crushing reality of the void. Notice it is poised ominously above the heads, as if it could bounce on them or roll over them. The spherical spirit only produces a slight glow as it merges with the void. The spirit will evaporate and be (re)integrated with the timeless, space-less potential of the void.
After doing some research into the ideas of death that i have looked at i decided that it would be interesting to look at creating a piece that represents this idea of traveling through the void my self.
These are the paintings i made inspired by the idea of traveling through the void into the unknown. This idea was a combination of the tibetan book of deaths cycle of rebirth throes and how peoples should will go on a journey through the void to reach enlightenment or they will be reborn. It is also an idea that stemmed from the idea of the DMT studies of how people explain that they feel as though they travel to another universe and see strange shapes and bizarre things during this experience and the mystery of the amount of DMT released when a person dies (this idea links to the tibetan book of death) and so symbolises again this idea of the journey into the unknown. The image i have created show movement as the lines in the image lead the eye to the central point of the paintings (the white part) I made this part white and the surrounding parts of the painting black as opposed to the reverse of this because "the light at the end of the tunnel" is a phrase well known and associated with death and this imagery symbolises what the painting is portraying (journey through death) The shape i used to symbolise the void is oval as it symbolises a tunnel suggesting no other option that to move forward and pushes the viewer to experience this idea of moving trough the void.
After looking at some DMT influences images in my sketchbook i noticed that a lot of them had the natural shapes of nerves found in the human body in them with lots of little wire resembling lines and electrical qualities. I tried to recreate this in my painting slightly by placing them over the void to create obstacles the view has to look through and add to the experience of the void. This however would be a lot more effective in colour as the energy and power these nerve shapes imply and create is sucked away by the lifeless 'death' representation colours (black and white).
This is the same idea as i used in my previous painting creating a void that drew the viewers attention in to one central point and try to emulate that of a movement through time, based on the same research. However i have created this piece in colour. The immediate effect of this painting in comparison is that of a much more positive and warm feel about it. The colours i chose where bright and lively to emphasise this feel and i chose purples and yellows as these are most associated with a mystical nature and yellow is a rather heavenly colour and so i have added that in slightly as a connection to death (although my dear is not connected to heaven or god) the connotations with this colour add to the feeling i was trying to create. Also this painting being done in these colours makes it more like the DMT journeys that people said to have experienced where they describe vast bright colours and so has a more intended impact on the audience as opposed to the black and white void.
I made these animations on after effects in response to my paintings as i thought it would be more effective if the viewer felt even more as though they were journeying through a void and the best was for this is to actually make my painting move.
I then made this coloured version that had more layers to it to emphasises that DMT effect that my ideas behind this piece were stemming from. The effect of this is a more overwhelming experience which is what the DMT experience at death would be like. The rings fill the screen entirely and pull the viewer in more and more. I made the rings round in this animation rather than oval as i found it made the small central focal point look even further away and was more aesthetically leasing when the rings were covering the screen as it was more even.
Going back to my previous research and reading the quote rober lanza mentioned: Until we recognize the universe in our heads, attempts to understand reality will remain a road to nowhere it made me think also about some of the similarities in the universe and nature
of DMT and the idea of the potential portal to another universe or dimension being inside the individuals head and their journey into the void being internal made me start to think about the connections in nature After looking up some DMT inspired videos and images and after seeing all the nervous electrical creations i decided that this idea of being transported and moving away from the body in death is also very internal (the light flickering that resemble bodily elements) this made me think about the connections between the universe and the internal body of a person and how this also relates to the native americans views on the ideas of cycles.I decided that i wanted the work i create to involve this idea of including these more naturalistic shapes such as the electrical nerve shapes in the work that i create.
I also wanted to keep the indians sacred circle theme in my work as this relates to the connections between things in nature and cycles and to the cycle of life again relating to my tibetan book of death research (i wanted to combine all of my research as it it does all link up in its own way and combing these idea i think could be very interesting.
I used a youtube tutorial to create the animation i used in this piece i then manipulated it to look and move how i wanted it too.
This was the first version of my void creation i made using the youtube tutorial that i have added the link for above. My idea for this is to reverse it and make it move for longer so that i create a traveling vortex similar to my previous creations however looking more like the abstract representations of a DMT experience that i have researched. I like the effects of the quality of the shapes involved in this animation as they have an electrical quality yet also flow smoothly, and so create a rather soothing and inuring experience for the audience.
Shock Wave linear from rachel on Vimeo.
to create the shock wave 1 video i first created it in a linear form and altered it to become in a circular shape. I used a fractal noise effects and changed the way it moved and its appearance to create this (following the tutorial).
cycle 1 from rachel on Vimeo.
I decided then at this stage before i attempted my main idea of creating the journey through the vortex, that i would extend the end part of the animation so that the 'ripple' like shapes keep moving and glinting on their own for a period of time before the next wave came. I did this as it represented the idea of the cycle of rebirth in the tibetan book of death and with the native americans. I wanted to represent and symbolise life as being short and momentary yet lively and vivid and make it stand out compared to the void so my idea was to have the glistening ripples as the void and the explosion as the life ( i layered edited parts of the beginning animation i had made with the tutorial on top of one another to do this).
cycle 2loop from rachel on Vimeo.
I then made this video where i looped the previous video i had created to make a continuous cycle that lasts for 2 minutes to reinforce this idea of this ongoing cycle (rather than just one repeat which takes away from the effect and impact on the audience of the Void Life Void of my animation. I made the animation fade in and out using opacity key frames so the being and end did not appear sudden and so blurring the symbolic line between begging and end (ongoing cycle).
loop light tunnel from rachel on Vimeo.
This moved me onto the idea of achieving the atman in the tibetan book of death. It claims that a person goes through and repeats the cycle of rebirth until they become enlightened and have learnt all they need to learn from life. I thought that at this stage it might be interesting to try and visually recreate this idea, extending from the cycle videos i have created and to add at the end of the cycle the screen slowly fade to white and then the ripples zoom forward to symbolise this transition of achieving the atman and reaching that stage of ending the cycle of rebirth.
Shock Wave43 from rachel on Vimeo.
I then inverted my creation so that it looked like the viewer was moving trough the tunnel like shapes i have created in the animation to create the feeling of traveling through the void. I changed the colours of the void to a more purple colour as this creates a more lively positive experience (like i spoke about with my paintings and the effects of the colours) than the monotone colours. Also the abstract effect agains the black background of the moving colour is quite beautiful.
My Final Idea :
For my final piece i have decided i want to create an installation on some kind. A black room with my animation being projected on one of the walls making my animation the only colour or visible thing the room and therefore making it seem more consuming and inevitable. however this still does not feel as though it is enough to get the viewer feeling the way i want them to feel and experience the thought of traveling through the void towards the unknown, along with all the feelings of euphoria and contemptment that the DMT studies explained patients experienced and the mystery and wonder behind this thought.
Joseph Campbell's monomyth, or the hero's journey, is a basic pattern that its proponents argue is found in many narratives from around the world. This widely distributed pattern was described by Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949). Campbell, an enthusiast of novelist James Joyce, borrowed the term monomyth from Joyce's Finnegans Wake.
When i was looking at the native americans circle of life i came across this cycle which shows the basic structure for most narratives in books to keep the reader enthralled. It basically states that in order to keep the viewer enthralled the character in the book must starts of with a fairly average life, have something horrible or life changing (scale varies depending on genre etc) happen to them and then work to solve it out and go back to an equilibrium. It states that there has to be some kind of major even or problem that needs to be solved in order for the viewer to want to keep reading. I thought that this idea could be applied to the idea of void life void itself. And that in order for people to appreciate life or to live there has to be the void present to create this balance.
Does The Void make life more meaningful and exaggerated?
i found a study conducted by Tom Jacobs on how people think more deeply about art and relate it to their own mortality when they are thinking about death.
Have you ever stared blankly at a piece of “weird” art—say, something from Dali, or maybe the apple-faced guy in Rene Magritte’s “Son of Man”—and thought, I just don’t get it? Well, a paper on two studies published in the European Journal of Social Psychology suggests that understanding unfamiliar art may just take some deep thoughts about dying.
Tom Jacobs over at Pacific Standard explains: “It finds that people are more likely to forge a positive emotional connection with surrealistic art if they have just been reminded of their own mortality.”
The team of researchers behind the paper conducted two separate studies. In the first, subjects were split into two groups. One group of people was told to think of their own deaths, and the other asked to consider dental pain. Both groups were shown an image of a surreal painting and an image of a naturalistic painting and asked to record how each made them feel.
Jacobs explains, quoting psychologist Verena Graupmann, one of the paper’s authors:
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/thinking-about-death-might-help-you-appreciate-surrealistic-art-180954006/#QZvuwI3FKKBuxrVX.99The researchers found that both paintings were described as similarly reassuring to participants who had written about dental pain. But for those who had been contemplating their own death, “the surrealistic painting emerges as more of a resource of reassurance” than the realistic one. “This corresponds to the idea that—although at first sight difficult to decode—surrealistic art offers access to reassurance on a different level of understanding.”
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I decided that this is a perfect example of how i can try and make my audience experience what i am intending with out them having to read through all of my previous research and interpretations of the research. By making my audience think about their own mortality just before they enter the room with my work in it this could make the experience more personal to the individual and make the person think more deeply about what it is they are watching.
I will write up a short paragraph or two about death that starts to plant the seed about the individuals own mortality and get them to wonder about the void. I will place just outside the room with my animation inside it. The viewer will then have to read this before they enter and hopefully connect the two experiences and have a deeper involvement in the installation.
There is some truth to the old saying, “There are only two things you can count on in life: death and taxes.” Everyone experiences death. Death and dying are an inevitable part of human life.
Some people know ahead of time when their death will occur. Terminal illnesses, when diagnosed ahead of time, allow a person to set his or her affairs in order, make relationships right, and say goodbye to loved ones. In these cases, every person involved has a chance to gradually adjust and make peace with death, as much as possible. However, not everyone has this chance. Many deaths occur suddenly. Death can, and often does, strike without warning.
No one is promised tomorrow. The only thing we can count on is today. - See more at: http://www.truthaboutdeath.com/#sthash.eT4JncTl.dpuf
What i could write: Everyone experiences death. Death and dying are an inevitable part of human life. No one is Promised tomorrow we can only count on today, but what do we know about it? We know that we die because that is what we are taught and that is what we know, do we know what is beyond the void. When a person dies their brain produces a large amount of DMT, a hallucinogenic chemical. The same chemical is released at birth. People who have experienced this (died and come back to life) have described their experience as being transported or journeying to another place in many cases. With this in mind a great mystery is presented as to what is beyond the light at the end of the tunnel and what we will find when we travel through the void.
Shortened version:
Beyond the void. When a person dies their brain produces a large amount of DMT, a hallucinogenic chemical. The same chemical is released at birth. People who have experienced this (died and come back to life) have described their experience as being transported or journeying to another place. What is beyond the light at the end of the tunnel? What we will find when we travel through the void?
I decided to shorten the short introduction to my work that i would place outside my installation as i thought having it too long could discourage people to read it and i wanted it to be short and quick just to being to plant a seed in peoples head about what the work is based around (the idea) i also wanted an element of mystery to relate to the mystery of my work (what lies beyond the void) and to get people wondering rather than having everything given to them.
François Rabelais was a french Renaissance writer, doctor, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. His last words before he died were : 'I go to seek the great perhaps'
SOUND:
I did some research on the sound i wanted to add to my animation. I don't want the sound to be too intense or to take away from the trance like appearance and effect of my animation i wanted to sound to be subtle but to emphasise the feelings i wanted to portray in my animation of mystery and travel.
I found a website called the science of sound that looks into the sound created by a gong. It explains that the sound of the gong has been used as a sound of relaxation and healing as its vibrations cover all aspects of the sound spectrum.
The vibration noises created at the end of the chime of the gong are more subtle and i think would sound effective along side my animation. Traveling through the void is a difficult picture to put sound to as it is something we can not reverse or see for ourselves how it sounds. so like the animation the sound i put with my animation will be fairly abstract swell. The deep vibration noises at the end of chime of the gong have an almost eery yet mystical sound which i like as my animation is trying to emphasise mystery and the unknown.
Again relating back to my research of the tibetan book of the dead tibetan healing sounds are creating using chimes and bowls that make a softer similar sound of the gong and focuses on this idea of using the sound of vibrations to experience relaxation. I think the sounds also have a feeling of mystery and awe about them.
I wanted to record my own sound and edit it in after effects slightly to create the sound i was aiming for howe due to running out of time and lack of a gong to use myself i decided to try and recreate the sound in garageband using the synthesiser sounds.
I used the classic analog pad in the synthesiser sounds and used the low notes. I then also used the rain clouds sound effect in the synthesiser and the high notes to create some higher pitched sounds to add a bit more to the audio i was going to add and have more depth and variety in my sound.
I decided to change the sound from the previous video as i thought that the higher pitched noises that played each time the void moved in on itself were too harsh and "star trek-ish" they kind of broke the hypnotising relaxation spell of the deeper humming noises that created a really intense atmosphere. these lighter piercing noises kind of broke this tension and mystery and brought the himation back to reality in a way which is not what i wanted. So i lowered the sounds of these and added another base sound over them to replace it.
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