MIRRORS AT PLAY

Nu Realm

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 21:53:00 +0000

This operation has moved. I am now HERE

http://mirrorsatplay.tumblr.com/

This is interesting....

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:17:00 +0000

Wonder if someone is catching my waves? Sure, I did tell them all about how excited I am to meet them, but only with my mind. ...hmm, but only with my mind

;)

People + Things to look into

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +0000

• Helmut Schmidt

+ Mind Science Foundation / Austin, TX

• Dr. Marilyn Schlitz

+ Institute of Noetic Sciences / Petaluma, CA

• Dr. William Braud

+ Institute of Transpersonal Psychology / Palo Alto, CA

• Charles Honorton

+ Research/ "Ganzfeld PSI performance within an Artistically Gifted Population"

• David Bohm

+ "The Undevided Universe"

• Institute for Biosensory Psychology / St. Petersburg, Russia

* Duncan Laurie

+ Artist

• Timeless Existance

• Dzogchen

• Jelaluddin Rumi

• Longchenpa

50/50

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:34:00 +0000

Resources:
50 images / 50 References

References:

1•

Stalking The Wild Pendulum/ Itzhak Bentov

2• The Secret Vaults of Time/ Schwartz

3• Miracles of Mind/ Russell Targ & Jane Katra, PH.D.

4• Limitless Mind/ Russell Targ

5• Mind-Reach/ Targ & Puthoff

6• The Practical Psychic/ Friedlander & Pearson

7• Basic Psychic Development/ Friedlander & Hemsher

8• Astral Dynamics/ Robert Bruce

9• URI: A Journal of the Mystery of URI Geller/ Andrija Puharich

10• Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet/ Jess Stearn

11• The Power of Alpha-Thinking/ Jess Stearn

12• Visualization/ Bry

13• Sensorium/ Jones, Editor

14• Art, Technology, Consciousness/ Ascott

15• Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art, Technology, and Consciousness/ Ascott

16• The Contingent Object of Contemporary Art/ Buskirk

17• Einstein: The Life and Times/ Ronald W. Clark

18• Pale Blue Dot/ Carl Sagan

19• Black Bodies and Quantum Cats/ Jennifer Ouellette

20• The Universe Between/ Nourse

21• Street Bikes/ Taylor

22• Shift: Frontiers in Consciousness | Magazine | IONS

23• Whole Earth | Magazine, Winter 1987 |

24• Scientifica: The Comprehensive Guide to the World of Science/ Allan R. Glanville

25• Properties of Seveal Geometric and Non-Geometric Figures/ Claude Simon

26• Dictionary of Occult, Hermetic and Alchemical Sigils/ Fred Gettings

27• Subjects of Parapsychology: Materialization/ Beta Evers

28•

29•

30•

31• Grey Lodge Occult Review

32• Earth Pulse

33• Reality Sandwich

34• Instructables

35• Hackaday

36• Arduino

37• Duncan Laurie

38• Bureau of Inverse Technology

39• Hacktivist

40• TechnoCcult

41• Institute of Noetic Sciences

42•

43•

44•

45• CreateDigitalMusic

46• CreateDigitalMotion

47• TimBoucher Experience

48• SkyWatchAstrology

49• Coast2Coast News

50• Make

51• Anderson Institute (Time?)

A Brief History of Fringe Thinkers & How Art Supports the Sciences

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 03:42:00 +0000

(click here to download .PDF version)

In 1543, the first printed copy of De revolutionibus was released upon a largely geocentric population, believing Earth to be the center of the Universe. It was a manuscript written by Nicolaus Copernicus, which detailed his heliocentric hypothesis, stating evidence to support the idea that the Earth, as well as the other known planets, revolves around the Sun. There is no doubt that Copernicus would have been severely ridiculed for publishing a document containing such outlandish claims. However, in a relatively convenient fashion, he passed away directly after the first copy of the manuscript was printed. Subsequently, The planned condemnation of the manuscript also happened to get postponed due to the death of Bartolomeo Spina, who was the Catholic Church’s authority in the reviewing and censoring of books. It was not until almost a century later in 1633, that Galileo, who is now considered by many to be the “Father of modern physics, science, and astronomy” (1), was sentenced to live the rest of his life under house arrest for supporting Copernicus’ theories of heliocentrism. Not long after this incident, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek published his observations of microscopic life forms, which were previously not known to exist. He was initially scrutinized and his credibility was tarnished for a number of years until his work was validated. Another century later in 1794, German physicist, Ernst Florens Chladni, fearlessly published a book of his collected data, which explained meteorites to be rocks from outer space. The science community immediately dismissed his book and they must have thought, “Rocks! From outer space!? This man is clippin’ the King’s English!”. He was mocked for ten years before some scientists and chemists decided to actually take a good look at his claims.

What these moments, in the history of scientific discovery, all have in common is that they involved ideas, which were in great opposition to paradigms of the time. They revealed the existence of entirely new worlds and concepts that were seen as too strange and abstract to be believed by popular culture and even the science community during these eras. Science, in its most basic form, is the methodical pursuit of knowledge and ultimate truth. So it seems unusual that today, four hundred years after the persecution of Galileo, that contemporary science still does not support research in areas that linger at the edge of knowledge and human comprehension. This major lack of support for research in areas that could potentially be the most paradigm shattering, is exactly why science needs art. Some research may be considered “too out there” to receive funding or scientists may not want to approach it, fearing it will contaminate their reputation and credibility. When science is unwilling to take the plunge into unknown territory, artists are eager to take a swan dive into the abyss. And when scientists are swimming under mountains of data, obscure theories, and concepts like Hyperelliptic Surfaces and Non Vanishing Harmonic Spinors, artists are ready to take these abstracts and translate them into concrete forms. Lastly, art pulls all of this out of the shadows of the lab and casts it into the public realm, were people in all walks of life may experience it.

One artist, who has become quite a veteran in the exploration of fringe areas, that popular science is unwilling to venture into, is Duncan Laurie. Laurie is an artist and inventor who grew up in Detroit, Michigan during 1950’s and received his M.F.A in sculpture from the University of Pennsylvania in 1973. Laurie currently resides in Providence, Road Island and has been exploring semiotics, metaphysics and the relationships between art and subtle energy technologies like Radionics. He operates a studio space for experimental facilitation in a range of fringe science research areas. Most noteworthy of these explorations is his work in the “Sonification of Nature Intelligence”. (2) This involved monitoring the levels of micovoltage and petravoltaic activity of plants and minerals and then transforming this data into sound, in real time, utilizing computers and software such as Ableton Live and Max/MSP. Through the sonification of subtle electrical activity, it was realized that the plants and minerals showed signs of interaction between people and music. These findings were demonstrated in Duncan Laurie’s 2008 show, at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT, titled “Rockstar”. The showing was supported by the following artist statement excerpt, “Rockstar is a short demonstration of how an ordinary piece of granite capable of producing a self-generated petra-voltaic charge can be used to summon a video and sonic representation of considerable visual complexity and sonic appeal. The over riding intent of the work is to illustrate the capacity of Nature, even in one of its most modest forms, i.e. a small piece of rock, to be capable of profound interaction with people and the environment”. (3)

In most cases, popular science would disregard Duncan Laurie’s work as metaphysical pseudoscience and refuse to approach it. Although, on other occasions, areas of research may not be thought of as too far out of bounds to a scientist, rather the government may simply be unwilling to provide funding for the program. This lack of funding for both arts and sciences is all too common in the United States but there have been continuous budget cuts to the arts for well over a decade so artists are used to figuring out how to make things work when the cash isn’t there. This is when science looks to art to do they work for them. An example of this may be observed in Revival Field, a project by North Carolina based artist Mel Chin. Much of Chin’s work focuses on how art can provoke social awareness and responsibility. In Revival Field, Chin was interested in environmental issues of land contamination and the use of hyper accumulators, plants that draw large amounts of heavy metals out from contaminated soil. Chin contacted Rufus L. Chaney, a research scientists in Beltsville, Maryland who had published papers on the potential benefits that could arise from planting hyper accumulators in contaminated soil. However, Chaney stated that the clearing of heavy metals from soil was his real passion but he was stuck working on sewage sludge due to lack of support from the conservative government. (4) It just so happened that Chin was also denied funding for the project by the National Endowment for the Arts despite proposals sent by the Citizen’s Environmental Coalition Education Fund, who greatly supported Chin’s ideas. (5) After dealing with all sorts of financial and legal issues regarding the project, Chin successfully acquired a 60 square foot plot of earth in a landfill in St. Paul Minnesota. He planted six types of plants that were known to be hyper accumulators, in a quadrant like pattern to form the shape of cross hairs, or a metaphorical targeting of the toxic zone. A year later, the artwork had finally created the science and the “heavy metal plants” were removed and handed over to Chaney where he analyzed them and determined the amount and quality of metal pulled in by the plants to be at the same level as commercial ore. This work provided evidence to the science community that proved hyper accumulators to be proficient at removing heavy metals from the soil, something that had only been tested in lab settings but actual field tests, provided in the name of art, were what helped this science research to come full circle.

In addition to exploring realms that contemporary science is not ready to delve into, art also excels at transforming the abstracts of science into more concrete experiential forms. This is probably one of the more obvious ways that art supports science but it is also has the potential to be the most insightful. This is especially true in areas like theoretical physics and neuroscience where traditional ideas of space, time, and the mind begin to unravel into a deep blur. Jonah Lehrer, in an article for the publication Shift: At The Frontiers of Consciousness, states that, “By taking artistic explorations seriously, neuroscientists can better understand the holistic properties they are trying to parse. Before you break something apart, it helps to know how it hangs together. In this sense, the arts are an incredibly rich data set, providing science with a glimpse into its blind spots.”(6) Japanese artist, Mariko Mori is one artist who has been actively approaching these blind spots between areas of science, technology, and spirituality. Several titles of her past work include, Oneness, Birth of a Star, Nirvana, and Connected World, all of which hint at ideas of transcendence and the dissolving of boundaries. Her 2003 work, Wave UFO, is a fantastic feat of architecture, engineering, science, and cutting edge technology. The work evolved after three years of research and involves the monitoring and visual interpretation of participants’ brainwaves through the use of custom designed computer programs and scientific equipment. The structure of the work is “an immense shimmering sculpture, appearing to hover a few feet above the ground. It measures 34 feet long x 17 feet wide x 14 feet tall. This fiberglass shell houses an interior capsule, which viewers enter via a series of resin lily pad shaped steps. Inside Wave UFO, three viewers at a time recline on a Technogel chair - a spongy, comfortable surface - to watch a 7-minute projection on the domed ceiling above.”(7) Once three participants enter Wave UFO, they are fitted with electrodes that monitor their brain activity. Sound, along with a projection on the ceiling, segmented into six sections, respond in real-time to the activity in each of the participants’ brain hemispheres. Functions of the mind, such as math problems or thinking in other languages will instantaneously alter attributes of the visual projection, while the two projected cells above a participant will fuse together, demonstrating when the lobes of the brain come into synchronization. This all-encompassing use of science, engineering, architecture, and technology is completely unprecedented in the world of science alone. A patient in a lab may receive their brainwave read out from an electroencephalograph, in the form of a dozen squiggly lines, which can only be interpreted by the knowledgeable neurologist. However, Wave UFOs immense use of scientific technologies demonstrates real-time feedback and previously unseen connections between people in a way that science has never endeavored to execute. Through new methods of interpreting and visualizing brain activity of multiple individuals simultaneously, Mori’s work sheds light on areas of science that have yet to be realized in the lab environment.

In acknowledging current developments in these areas of science, it is also interesting to note the shape of the sculpture, which participants’ enter, is in the somewhat classic form of what contemporary culture would deem to be an Unidentified Flying Object from outer space. UFOlogists, as they’re called, are largely dismissed by the scientific community and quickly written off as conspiracy theorists. However, there are legitimate researchers out there such as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence program, better known as SETI. In considering NASA’s recent discovery of bacteria in a meteorite from Mars(9), in conjunction with the Vatican’s sparsely publicized, 2008 statement about alien life being compatible with Christianity (10), which seemed to coincide with the UK government publicly releasing over ten years worth of UFO documentation(11); this all may seem quite bizarre but it really suggests that the studies of some serious ufologists, could also benefit from closer inspection by the popular science community.

As seen in Mariko Mori’s work, there are ways to visualize processes of the mind but when it comes to theoretical physics, there is currently no way for a physicist to generate an experience of…lets say, the eleventh dimension or mirror symmetry, which is apparently something that happens between two six dimensional manifolds that may appear to be different from one another but are indeed equivalent when occupying a hidden dimension! Maybe someone like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Guru Dev, or Leonard Nimoy, have experience these six dimensional manifolds but the closest physicists are going to get to actually experiencing their own theories is probably through listening to the sounds of Dopplereffekt. Dopplereffekt is a notoriously secretive electronic music duo, which surfaced in Detroit during the mid 1990’s but now are presumed to be located in Germany. Over the past decade, their compositions have been directly referencing contemporary physics research through the use of album and track titles like, Linear Accelerator, Niobium Resonators, and Hyperelliptic Surfaces. It is now know that some of the imagery used in their album cover art has been licensed from CERN, the world’s largest particle physics lab, located in Geneva, Switzerland. During the fifteen years of their existence, there have been only a few rare instances when Dopplereffekt has appeared in public for live performances, although all black suits and black masks have typically concealed their true identities. The first ever interview of the duo recently appeared in the October 2009 issue of The Wire, magazine. The interviewer writes, “Considering that the concepts of cutting-edge physics, of fleeting subatomic particles and unstable physical states, are entirely alien to our everyday understanding of the world, and necessarily impossible for us to access directly, Dopplereffekt’s fictional renderings of them – ping-ping tones that ricochet around the stereo space, synthetic textures that ghost between high and low registers as if through wormholes – could be the closest thing to experiencing these zones we’re likely to get.” One of the members of the duo, confirmed to be Gerald Donald, comments on their Linear Accelerator album, saying, “the tones and the arrangement are a reflection of the concept that is presented. So, representing a concept about trying to search for new matter on a subatomic scale, in a way that’s the sound that you could possibly hear.” Donald also states that there was a high level of research involved with the production of the Linear Accelerator release and that him and his partner, Micheala To Nhan Le Thi, were in contact with scientific personnel who they met up with for help throughout the production. The sounds of Dopplereffekt may take vast shifts from solid, concrete beats into lush cerebral landscapes but it’s a prime example of an art form giving shape to scientific theories that exist far beyond our general grasp of reality.

Demonstrated by the work of Mel Chin, it is understood that science can directly benefit from art, while it can also benefit more indirectly from the ambitious and highly technical works created by Mariko Mori. The future also seems more hopeful for theorists and scientists working in fringe areas when there are artists like Duncan Laurie and Dopplereffekt, who bring abstract or far-fetched ideas out of the lab and cast them into the public, creating support and greater awareness of sciences that lie at the edge of our understanding. Earlier this year, there was a Vatican Museum exhibit held to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s observations, in a way, making up for their grave error during the 17th century.(12) Some ideas may seem too fantastic to be taken as fact by popular culture, especially the ones that challenge major cultural worldviews, like the possibility of the Earth not being the center of the Universe or multiple parallel Universes expanding in 11th Dimensional hyper space. But some day, humans may look back upon Earth and laugh at the days when we were slaves to gravity, space, and time.

Works Cited
(1) Finocchiaro, Maurice A. (Fall 2007). "Book Review—The Person of the Millennium: The Unique Impact of Galileo on World History".
(2) Laurie, Duncan. "EXPERIMENTAL FACILITATION: | Duncan Laurie." Duncan Laurie | Exploring Radionics and subtle energy through Art. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .
(3) "Art | Duncan Laurie." Duncan Laurie | Exploring Radionics and subtle energy through Art. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .
(4) "Art:21 . Mel Chin . Interview and Video |." PBS. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .
(5) "Revival Field: Projection & Procedure | Mel Chin | Walker Art Center |." Collections and Resources. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .
(6) Lehrer, Jonah. "Why Science Needs Art." Shift: At The Frontiers of Consciousness Sept. 2008: 8-13. Print.
(7) "Mariko Mori «Wave UFO» 2003. | Φrbit° sφaceφlace :: art in the age øf Φrbitizatiøn." Art in the Age of Orbitization - Gotchi Universe | Φrbit° sφaceφlace :: art in the age øf Φrbitizatiøn. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .
(8) Walmsley, Derek. "Blind Sided." The Wire Oct. 2009: 28-30. Print.
(9) "Bacteria from Mars found inside ancient meteorite - Telegraph." Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph - Telegraph. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .
(10) "Vatican ponders extraterrestrials | Riazat Butt | World news | guardian.co.uk." Latest news, comment and reviews from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .
(11) "UFO files | Newly released files from." The National Archives. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .
(12) "Vatican to E.T.: Hello, Brother | 80beats | Discover Magazine." Discover Blogs | Discover Magazine. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .

Psychic Bacteria Lab

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:43:00 +0000

This is phase one of my psychic bacteria experiment lab. Five 1/4" deep circles were routed out of MDF. Symbols were placed on 4" diameter Plexiglas disks that were installed in containment unit, which were then filled with a food grade Agar and prepped for inoculation.

The symbols are a direct reference to the history of psychic research. They were originally printed as a deck of cards called Zener Cards, after Karl Zener, the perceptual psychologist who invented them in the 1930's as a means to test ones psychic abilities.

However, the function of these symbols in my experiment is quite different. The basic idea and hypothesis is that a symbol is selected at random by a computer, the graphic of that symbol is then cast out into the public via internet proliferation as well as physical printing and distribution methods. Through the act of intention and the spreading of the chosen symbol throughout a collective awareness, there will then be a higher level of growth and biological activity located above the selected symbol inside the lab unit.

In a way, one could also see this experiment as testing the legitimacy of prayer, since prayer is essentially the use of focused awareness and intention to curve a desired manifestation. However, I'm more interested in this project existing as art, which speaks to the history of psychic research since research in this fringe area of science has been conducted under strict protocol by very credible individuals for almost a century, yet it is still ignored by the contemporary science community.

How is this Art? It could be art simply because I designate the Psychic Bacteria Lab as an art object, similar to the gesture of designation in readymades of the early 20th century. But there are more specifics being expressed here about my art/science interests than what I could hope to express with a found object readymade. For more info Click Here to read my future essay titled "A Brief History of Fringe Thinkers and How Art Supports the Sciences". (If the link is not clickable, it must not be the future yet ;)

This is the template I created for the symbols seen in the lab unit. They were then cut by my buddy Miguel at Free Speed Wicked Sweet Moped Customs. I gave the dimensions for the anti-contamination cover to TAP Plastics and they had it ready in about a week. They're usually pretty quick and reliable plus the manager at their Sandy Rd location is named Robert Moog. I get it all the time for being Robert Burns so I like to give him a hard time for being named Robert Moog ;)

(initial sketch)

Stay tuned for more info as this project progresses.

Straight To BlackOut / Trailer

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:21:00 +0000

Straight To BlackOut Trailer from BURNS.R % on Vimeo.

Trailer for Straight To BlackOut (Gear For Torque) moped rally put on by the Puddle Cutters moped gang, who are the Portland, OR branch of the national Moped Army. The footage was taken last week during a ride out to Washougal river for some icey swimming and rock diving. I hung out the back of the Geo Tracker filming, while June held my waist so I didn't fly overboard.
Eric screams at the dinosaur ice cream truck as we were trying to keep up with the pack.

From what I was told, the plan for the mini trailer was more or less a montage of footage but there ended up only be one day available for shooting video since I was in the middle of moving. I had tons of the FREQ TEST recordings so I layered some of those clips over the moped shots to spice it up.

The shot of Miguel's Peugeot 103 near the end was taken through a huge lens that I ripped out of an old Fujitsu television station camera. I really need to build a mount because that thing gets heavy fast while holding it in the left hand with the camera in the right. It looks like a portal window from a boat + about the size of my face!
The effect is kind of like the selective focus of a lens baby.

Future Kitty Commune

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:00:00 +0000

MSI Wind OSx86 / Hackint0sh

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:10:00 +0000

I recently converted a MSI Wind netbook into a mini "Hackint0sh". There are many ways of doing this and several OSx86 distributions, some of which are more or less compatible with different systems and hardware configurations . I was relatively new to the whole process so I studied quite a few guides and tutorials. The process involved much trial and error / figuring out the best method for the tools that were at hand (really forced me to brush up on my knowledge of Terminal commands!) I almost screamed like a little girl upon seeing the Leopard install screen on my previously Windows XP netbook. I loosely followed this guide, while changing a few steps to suit my setup.

I did not have an external DVD reader/writer so I created a GUID partition on a 1TB Western Digital USB HD. Then I used SuperDupe to copy the iDeneb v1.4 10.5.6 (available at your neighborhood torrent shop ;) image over to the partition then installed the Chameleon bootloader on the partition.

Went into the boot settings on the MSI Wind and selected the USB HD as the boot startup disk. The drive booted and the install completed successfully but not without quite a few hiccups like distorted screen size, and sound/audio i|o, web cam, and wireless all not functioning. Somehow, these all magically began working after about an hour of installing/uninstalling/re-installing various kernel extensions and drivers.

I haven't done any benchmark tests but this little MSI Wind Hackint0sh (using it to make this post right now) has been running great and I've been continually impressed with it's performance.

This is not meant to be a guide, just a brief overview of the process that I went through but if you're interested in making your own hackint0sh, feel free to post questions in the comments.

Below are several resources that made this possible. Also, thank yous to many friendly digital citizens in the #hackint0sh channel of irc.hackint0sh.hu server who were super supportive and helpful!

http://www.osx86project.org/

http://www.hackint0sh.org

http://ihackintosh.org/

http://msiwind.net/

http://forums.msiwind.net/osx-installing/installing-osx-the-wind-using-ideneb-t11069.html
( ^same guide as posted in the text)

http://www.electricvagabond.com/2008/11/msi-wind-touchscreen-mod.html
(Touch Screen Mod!)

http://gizmodo.com/5109902/msi-encourages-hackintosh-leaks-os-x-wi+fi-drivers-for-the-wind

Oh yea! can't forget, I found some amazing work on this flickr stream, one of those images is being tiled as my desktop seen in the last image above. And i found those nice minimal pictogram icons at this site.

NAVR / Looking into pain perception and VR

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:19:00 +0000

Out of all the physiological modes of perception, pain or nociception is probably the least favorite sensation for most sane humans on earth. Upon finding a genie in a bottle, agliophobics (people who fear pain) might first wish to never feel pain again. However, if on their way out of the genies cave, a young bat with poorly developed echolocation happens to swoop into their hair, mistaking it for food; they could stumble though a lava pit then continue on their way without even realizing that they have third degree burns all the way up to their knee caps! Pain may not be fun but this scenario illustrates exactly why nociception is one the most vital physiological sensations for human well-being. There are times when sensing pain is very important although, there are also times when nociception can be a real drag. For instance, after someone dips their kneecap in a lava pit, the mechanothermal receptors of the nociceptors immediately jump into action by causing an unconscious autonomic response, sucking the kneecap right back out of the lava but they simultaneously transmit signals through sensory neurons in the spinal cord that zoom up to the thalamus where they are redirected to the somatosensory cortex in the cerebrum (Wikipedia, Nociception) and finally, the sensation of pain erupts into consciousness. But once this important neural synaptic dance is over (in less than a second) and the person is conscious of the fact that they have been burned, hours or even days could pass by and the brain might continue sending messages saying, “Your burning, your burning!”, since severe burns in particular, take a long time to heal . So scientists and doctors have developed quite a few methods that attempt to put a stop to feelings of pain once they are not necessarily needed.

Opioid analgesics like oxycodone or morphine inhibit ascending neural pathways of pain perception and activate descending pathways which relieves pain by preventing the signals sent by the nociceptors from getting to the brain (Freudenrich, 2009). However, these analgesics, used for high levels of pain, are only entertaining for so long until physical addiction sets in and no one likes the distraction of being a doped up drooly-sloth. Thankfully, In 1965, two scientists named Ronald Melzack and Patrick David Wall, came up with the idea that the mind could be distracted from the idea of pain resulting in an actual decrease in the physical perception of pain, they called this the Gate Control Theory (Gold & Mahrer, 2009). The theory suggests that attention, emotion and memory, which are related to the central nervous system, are somehow closely involved with processes related to sensory perception. They called it the Gate Control Theory because it posits that pain signals sent from the nociceptors do not travel directly through the body, instead, they move through special “nerve gates” before the body decides how much awareness should be assigned to the pain sensation. In a way, this is like a white furry mammoth gate keeper standing in front a futuristic laser shielded threshold saying, “Tell me everything about the attention, emotion, and memories that you hold from past lives when you repeatedly dipped your kneecap in that lava pit over there!” and you say, “Well...it felt pretty good”. Then he leans over and sheepishly presses the red button to disengage the laser beams, letting the pain signal continue on up then back down the neural pathway and then the lava dripping from your knee ends up not hurting so bad because you lied to the guard. Scientists have found that the gatekeeper can indeed be fooled into letting one get away with feeling less pain if a tool of distraction is utilized. In a Medical News Today article, a Dr. Butz states that “Research shows a very strong connection between anxiety and pain. Distraction does a great job in decreasing any kind of anxiety that might be associated with the anticipated procedures, so by distracting patients and keeping anxiety at a minimum, procedures tend to go much more smoothly and be much less painful for the child.” During burn patient wound dressing and other procedures, several types of distraction have been used such as, reading books, listening to music, playing video games, watching television, as well as counting and deep breathing (MedicalNewsToday, 2009). However, these traditional forms of distraction are practically ancient when applied to hyper active kids today who are listening to music while uploading live video of themselves to FaceBook as they're stealing third base in a Taco Bell sponsored T-Ball tournament. If a person really wants to create a distraction for themselves these days they would have to shove their head through a rip in space time and immerse themselves in the sights and sounds of Negative Land. But since quantum physicists haven't taken a clue from the sewing machine industry and are taking their sweet time with building hyper dimensional space-time seam rippers, the best distraction device, that cutting edge science has to offer, is the exciting new world of Virtual Reality!

Actually, Virtual Reality technology (VR for short) has practically been around for forty years since the first augmented reality, head mounted display (HMD) system was developed by Ivan Sutherland and Bob Sproull in 1968 (Wikipedia, Virtual Reality). But it was not until the mid nineties that VR grabbed the interest of popular media after the box office train-wreck, The Lawnmower Man, was released in 1992. Virtual Reality systems have yet to be fully implemented and accepted by the mainstream. Even the Virtual Boy VR console system, released in 1995, by the Nintendo Corporation was a flop but doctors and scientists have recently found VR technology to be an effective and promising solution for distraction related pain therapy. This high-tech area of pain management is still very young and not fully understood but positive results have been recorded in a number of case studies. The first evidence that supported Virtual Reality pain management came from a study involving two male burn patients, ages 16 and 17. The two were both put in a situation that compared video games as a means of distraction to Virtual Reality while having their burns cared for. The results showed that both of them experienced a greater decrease in pain intensity, anxiety, and time spent thinking about pain while in the VR environment compared to simply playing video games (Gold & Mahrer, 2009). This was one of the very first case studies so we can be forgiving about the lack of proper detailed documentation but details are very important because the type of VR as well as the fidelity of the VR can have varying affects. A Virtual Reality system could be just a head mounted display (HMD) unit. However, the system could be as complex as a HMD with audio, combined with head tracking so the VR environment changes with the position of the patients head, as well as a control unit with tactile feedback. And higher resolution VR systems will increase the level of believability, causing one to feel that they're actually immersed in another world more-so compared to lower resolution systems.

A recent and much more precise study was conducted in 2008 by at the University of Maryland. This study involved forty-one children who voluntarily participated in a cold pressor pain tolerance experiment where they were distracted, on separate trials, with both a video game played on an flat screen monitor with speakers as well as the same video game except it was played with a VR head mounted display unit with headphones. They played the video game with and without the VR HMD while pain threshold (the amount of time that passed until the child reported pain) and pain tolerance (to total duration of time that the child kept their hand in the cold water) were measured. The results showed that the children's pain tolerance significantly improved when using the VR HMD as compared to playing the came in front of the flat screen display (Dahlquist et. al., 2008). Virtual Reality is an exceptionally effective method for distracting one from pain sensations because it is, in general, a highly immersive experience. Research seems to show that as the immersive qualities of the VR environment increase such as, with the use of HMDs, sound, head tracking, haptics, and higher resolution, a greater drop in pain perception is experienced by the patient. The amount of research that validates VR as a positive form pain management continues grow and attract attention but do neurobiologists and researchers performing these studies really know how all this works?

The answer is...not exactly. Remember that big white wooly mammoth that was the gatekeeper, standing in front of the laser beams? Sure, he was a strange analogy but he was meant to stick out because those guys Melzack and Wall were really on to something with their Gate Control Theory. VR has a strong effect on attention, emotion, and memory and as the Gate Control Theory suggests, these three elements related to the central nervous system also have an effect on nociception. Since VR pain therapy is so new, little is known about the neurobiological processes that are involved, although researchers have managed to figure out a few things. By using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), scientists monitored the brain while patients were in the midsts of a pain distraction session. They found that cortical areas of the brain that are associated with attention and pain modulation were more active while the person was being distracted while parts of the brain directly related to pain perception, like the thalamus and mid-cingulate, were less active. In more specific terms, the orbiofrontal cortex showed an increase in circulation when pain was present along with a distraction, compared to just pain alone. However, the thalamus and other pain related centers of the brain decreased in activity during a distraction period. Although, they still do not understand the real nitty gritty of what is happening, these findings suggest that the pain modulation gates that Gate Control Theory explained in the 1960's, really do exist.

Although, nociception can seem like it is being overly dramatic about little things like paper cuts, stubbing your toe, or hitting your funny bone on the coffee table, it really comes in handy when it tells you important things like, “Get your foot out of that lava!”. But when it seems to have Alzheimer's by telling you over and over again that something hurts, you can use the power of your mind to distract yourself from the pain or you can use a much more exciting distraction like a totally cool Virtual Reality underwater video game! The field of VR pain therapy might still be very young, but in it's infancy, it has already exhibited a great amount of potential. It has pushed neurobiologists, psychologists, anesthesiologists, and other professionals to probe into previously unexplored areas of pain perception. Virtual Reality could some day be thought of less as a form of entertainment and more so as a method for attending to pain on a daily basis, reducing the need for pharmacological drugs.

Works Cited
Dahlquist, Lynnda M., Karen E. Weiss, Lindsay D. Clendaniel, and Emily F. Law. "Effects of Videogame Disraction using a Virtual Reality Head-Mounted Display Helmet on Cold Pressor Pain in Children." Journal of Pediatric Psychology Advance Access (2008).

Freudenrich Ph.D., Craig. "HowStuffWorks "Introduction to How Pain Works"" Howstuffworks "Health Channel" 10 May 2009 .

Gold, Jeffery I., and Nicole E. Mahrer. "The Use of Virtual Reality for Pain Control: A Review." Current Pain and Headache Reports (2009).

"Nociception -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 10 May 2009 .

"Virtual reality -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 10 May 2009 .

"Virtual Reality Games Used To Distract Young Burn Victims From Pain And Anxiety." Medical News Today: Health News. 2007. Nationwide Children's Hospital. 10 May 2009 .

Waves Glitch / Tillamook Beach

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:45:00 +0000

Tillamook Beach (Glitch) from BURNS.R % on Vimeo.

I was out exploring among the wave worn coves at Tillamook Beach on the coast of Oregon. Taking pictures with a little 3mega pixel camera that I found ages ago at a garage sale in Ann Arbor for $5. The camera started glitching out so I took a little vidi of the waves. You can barely make out the abstracted form of my friend Heather around the 20sec mark. Then the waves roll in pink.

CTN/OVR v3

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Fri, 15 May 2009 10:22:00 +0000

MirrorMoto

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:49:00 +0000

This picture was taken inside a "Photo Booth" Installation created by Modou Dieng.
The installation invited one to snap a photo of themselves or others, posing in the chrome room. Participants have been asked to e-mail the images to the artist. I assume he will create an image catalog documenting how people choose to utilize the space.

I took this as a nice opportunity for shooting some StarWars/Mad Max glam shots of my newly resurrected 1966 Honda s90. I've been working on a sound element for the bike that currently creates a frequency sweep as I turn the throttle to give it gas. At the moment, I only have subtle control over the rate of the freq. sweep as well as a volume control. I'll be working on it more this summer; possibly adding a ring mod and a little delay.

I'll post pictures and more details as the project progresses.

Edit: This will not be progressing, I sold this baby. On the look out for a bigger vintage bike to start a café project.

Wilhelm Reich Resources

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 06:48:00 +0000

Orgone Biophysical Research Lab
Ashland, OR

Ether, God & Devil & Cosmic Superimposition. 1972.

Orgone Energy, Wilhelm Reich and UFOs. By Peter Robbins. Dir. International UFO Congress Convention.

The Bioelectrical Investigation of Sexuality and Anxiety. 1983.

Fury on earth a biography of Wilhelm Reich. Sharaf, Myron R. 1994.

The Wilhelm Reich Museum
http://www.wilhelmreichmuseum.org

Dir. Dusan Makavejev. w/ Jackie Curtis. VHS. 1971.

Download WR: Mysteries of the Organism from Rpdshare
(Copy/Paste the links)

http://rapidshare.com/files/115269214/Dusan_Makavejev_-_WR_1971_Covers_and_Booklet.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/114991598/Dusan_Makavejev_-_WR_Mysteries_of_the_Organism__1971__Criterion_DVDrip.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/114995438/Dusan_Makavejev_-_WR_Mysteries_of_the_Organism__1971__Criterion_DVDrip.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/114999155/Dusan_Makavejev_-_WR_Mysteries_of_the_Organism__1971__Criterion_DVDrip.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/115003053/Dusan_Makavejev_-_WR_Mysteries_of_the_Organism__1971__Criterion_DVDrip.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/115007129/Dusan_Makavejev_-_WR_Mysteries_of_the_Organism__1971__Criterion_DVDrip.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/115011306/Dusan_Makavejev_-_WR_Mysteries_of_the_Organism__1971__Criterion_DVDrip.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/115016094/Dusan_Makavejev_-_WR_Mysteries_of_the_Organism__1971__Criterion_DVDrip.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/115021207/Dusan_Makavejev_-_WR_Mysteries_of_the_Organism__1971__Criterion_DVDrip.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/115027123/Dusan_Makavejev_-_WR_Mysteries_of_the_Organism__1971__Criterion_DVDrip.part09.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/115034101/Dusan_Makavejev_-_WR_Mysteries_of_the_Organism__1971__Criterion_DVDrip.part10.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/115040004/Dusan_Makavejev_-_WR_Mysteries_of_the_Organism__1971__Criterion_DVDrip.part11.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/115045803/Dusan_Makavejev_-_WR_Mysteries_of_the_Organism__1971__Criterion_DVDrip.part12.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/115049928/Dusan_Makavejev_-_WR_Mysteries_of_the_Organism__1971__Criterion_DVDrip.part13.rar

RAR password = http://avaxsphere.com/

Inspiration this week

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 07:50:00 +0000

Human Echolocation

Contrary to what the video claims, other blind humans on earth are also using echo-location. Read about the work of Dan Kish

Echo-Vision: The man who sees with sound

CTN/OVR v2

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:07:00 +0000

An amorphous vessel of communication existing in liminal space. It’s volume fluctuates as it moves into then out of existence. Spectators movements create vibrations, which open up lines of communication. The Vessel responds with pulsating energy currents, as well as fluttering atmospheric sounds and imagery. In a permanent state of flux, it is the sender and the receiver. As quickly as it obtains, contains, and communicates information, it deflates back into the void of it’s origin.

More info and video related to this experiment at a later date...

Ok, here is some video for the time being, quite dark and lots of stomping
to over accentuate the audio/visual response triggered by the vibration sensor.

Untitled from BURNS.R % on Vimeo.

CellWave

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 10:42:00 +0000

Fifty percent of humans on earth (3.3 billion) are "attached" to a device that allows instantaneous communication with other device enabled humans. This device, the cell phone, is the closest technology we have to telepathy on a global scale. The cell phone is such an extension of our bodies to the point where it is not uncommon for a user to experience phantom vibrations or auditory hallucinations of their cell phone ringing even while it is turned off.

In exploring the relationship between the body and the invisible, telepathic like communications of the cell phone, I utilized an electroencephalograph (EEG), normally used in neurology for reading brainwaves, to visually render the "brain waves" of a cell phone. The EEG monitored the cell phone while it was receiving short poetic statements sent in the form of text messages. The subtle electrical activity, which permeated the atmosphere around the phone, was visually rendered by the needles of the EEG in bold hues of magenta and cyan, exaggerating the colored appearance of the human nervous system.

BioAlter

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:35:00 +0000

Bio Alter is a future mythology piece intended for interstellar travelers who have become more or less human, cyborgs. They reflect upon the grid of tangible extrusions; this organic violet bio-matter serves to remind them of their origins and their parts, which are still physically human. The inner luminosity that permeates throughout the grid centers them on the light of consciousness that is their vehicle to the endless number of points existing in the space-time matrix.

Mystical Substance / Untitled / Dark Matter

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:33:00 +0000

Static / FREQ CTRL / Stasis

noreply@blogger.com (BURNS.R) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:18:00 +0000

FREQ TEST ONE from BURNS.R % on Vimeo.

FREQ TEST TWO (100hz) from BURNS.R % on Vimeo.

Name (O) from BURNS.R % on Vimeo.

Conditioned by words
Conditioned by names
And bound to their stories

These are not who we are

When these names and their stories
Manifest into gestures, they pervade
The "past"

Say the secret name which
Has no anchor
Make the hidden gesture that
Has no name

In tandem they give birth to the
Static that is "now"

Consume the static

Surf the stasis.