Indians, Astronauts, & Magic, May 2010
This is the final iteration of the Tipi Experiments. An in-depth exploration of this journey is contained in my RISD Digital + Media master's thesis here.
These photos are evidence of a series of events composed for a willing voyager and myself. Each experience was intended to establish a connection between two people as we travel into the woods.
1. The journey begins with a boat. Its cargo contains: a metal tipi frame, two non-flickering orbs, and a portable electroencephalography (EEG) headset.
2. We sit facing each other. In order to efficiently cross the water, we must synchronize our paddling.
3. Arriving at the shoreline of the woods, we work together to unload our cargo.
4. We search for/seek out a contemplative clearing in the woods. Our coordinated efforts allow us to setup the five-sided tipi.
5. By exploiting the brain’s tendency to synchronize to pulsing stimulus, we entrain our brainwaves to one another. As one person wears the brainwave sensor the other stares into the flickering orb with eyes closed. The orb stores the brainwaves after one person’s journey, and projects it onto the other person.
6. The orbs are attached to the tipi, each a portrait of our symbiotic experience.
7. These orbs were brought to downtown Providence for display to share the brainwaves of past voyagers. After their exhibition there, they travel back to their corresponding tipis in the woods.
Indians, Astronauts, and Magic [beta], January 2010.
This version of the tipi experiments involves one tipi that users are invited to lay down in. Upon laying down they can put on blurred goggles and stare into a projection of video flashes coming from the tipi's apex. They are also invited to put on headphones playing a binaural beat which is synchronized with the flashes of light being projected onto them. The light and audio are both typical means of brainwave entrainment. The brainwave pattern participants are being entrained to are that of a monk meditating.
Indians, Astronauts, and Magic [alpha], January 2010.
This project involved two tipis. One tipi had a brainwave (eeg) sensor. The other had a brainwave entrainment projection of flashing video. One participant is invited to put on the brainwave sensor and another participant is invited to lay down in the other tipi and subject themselves to the brainwave entrainment. The entrainment is reading input from the person with the sensor on so to synchronize the one person's brainwaves with the others.
[NO PHOTOS]
Swallow Tipi, December 2009.
Two participants are asked to swallow a red pill and enter the tipi. Once inside they are invited to sit facing each other in front of two laptops and fill out a questionnaire consisting of found questions typical of a psychiatrist trying to dissect a patients psyche. The questionnaire of each participant is projected onto the tipi's canvas above their heads, revealing their answers for others to see.
Ganzfeld Tipi, December 2009.
This was an attempt to recreate the Ganzfeld Experiment. A group of people watched footage of the first lunar landing. Two people were inside a tipi trying to guess what the group was watching. The two in the tipi would talk into a hung microphone non-stop for five minutes while trying to guess the content of the footage.
Space Disco Tipi, September 2009.
A disco ball is placed on the floor inside a pvc structure resembling a tipi. As participants move their hands over the disco ball a tiny projector at the structure's apex moves a beam of light in opposition to the hands placement. According to where the hands over the ball are placed different audio tracks are played originating from radio telescope space recordings.