Participants' essays / Simona Schimanovich /

Constructing Archtecture of Mind

"What about a being who has learned to live in a world in which, rather than nature becoming technologized, technology is nature - in which the boundaries between subject and environment have collapsed? "(1)

Referring to this question raised by Sandy Stone in her article "Will the Real Body Please Stand Up?" and our attempts towards a new form of representation of body developed in our concept for "A Tranquility" in October we now focused on developing this idea further in the concept of our project "InsideOut".
What if - as I already pointed out in my essay "First Encounter: A Tranquility" - there "isn´t a clear distinction between the user and the surrounding world any more like it is usually established by the existence of a concrete body separating the "inside-world" of the user from the "outside-world" of the environment"?
Developing this idea further led us to a closer examination of the 6 elements introduced by Aristotelian drama - Spectacle, Pattern, Language, Thought, Character, Action - and to the question:
What if the character actually becomes the spectacle breaking this traditional separation? What if the character´s mind itself constitutes the environment of the world that people can actually enter?
Questions like these established the basis for our concept of constructing an "Architecture of Mind".

Entering this mind space presupposes a totally new form of communication. Whereas our usual view of a situation of communication consists of two clearly separated entities signaling to each other the concept of entering another person´s MindSpace introduces a state of being wrapped up in another character and experiencing her/his mind from inside. This view of the representation of character actually surrounding us as a world denies the traditionally clear distinction between subject and object manifested by theories of rationalism and leads us to the origins of theatre that were - instead of emphasizing separation like the square-shaped frames characterizing our theatre- and movie-experience today - circular and embracing the audience. An approach that is certainly attached to another level of emotional involvement and therefore increasing the power of the experience.

The task of visualising the inside of a mind raised questions like:
How does mind work as a frame for our perception of reality? How is meaning and identity constructed? And how does mind tell stories?
In our research we encountered the theories of Rudolf Arnheim on "Visual thinking" where he describes two opposite ways of classification mind uses: On the one hand there is a tendancy towards simplification by losing details and replacing them by symmetry and regularity while on the other hand there is a tendancy of keeping the characteristic details. That way mind is active and selective. Furthermore, mind can separate things from their context or combine different elements creating a synthesis when constructing mind images.
Applying these qualities of mind visually we are aiming to construct a MindSpace containing the character´s stories, memories and dreams for people to explore. Past, presence and future shall exist together in an attempt to direct the rythm towards space rather than time - as Mika Tuomola made the experience with "Daisy´s Amazing Discoveries":
"The rythm of a narrative work can be regulated in spatial terms as efficiently as in temporal terms."(2)

Based on these conceptions our aim will be to create a mindspace reflecting the character´s search for meaning and her role as a medium while allowing the audience to dive truly into the story.

References:

(1) Stone, Allucquere Rosanne, "Will the Real Body Please Stand Up?", Cyberspace: First Steps, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1991, p.102

(2) Tuomola, Mika "Daisy´s Amazing Discoveries", p.138