20070213
Hypnosis
I want to start a thread on the idea of hypnosis and art. The pod thing I posted below is a very early construction of this idea -- I think it would be amazing to make some hypnotic videos that have messages and all of that stuff, and I was very happy when I saw the gwazdor video because it is very much along the same lines. What does everyone think?
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Be more specific. What is it about hypnosis you find interesting? I mean, I could go on and on about how cool hypnosis is, but in terms of artmaking, everyone has their weirdo obsessions, and this sounds like yours. What questions are on your mind?
reminds me of this.
BENEVOLENT BRAINWASHING
my senior year i was very into the idea of a video that induces hypnosis....or at least something that claims to....mainly...it would be cool if it came with a disclaimer....like a "dream machine" (farley)....if you want to read about some fucked up mind fuck art stuff you should look up "feraliminal lycanthropizer"....thats some serious headfuck shit..infrasound...but like i was saying...i was researching hypnosis...and the track that i was following was that generally in hypnosis there is a sort of a script that the hypnotist follows...but its not a strict script...its merely meant to evoke specific reactions...mainly relaxation...but there are steps....so my general idea was to accomplish this thru art...like you know....you can tell someone to picture a comfortable place...or a relaxing image...or you can show it to them...so i actually downloaded a bunch of hypnotism scripts...but i never really got farther than that...i mean the trick is that different images mean different things at different strengths for different people....so...i think its much more fun to TELL people they are being hypnotized...and then just show them some trippy shit....
Um. Hip-motize means move your hips. It's a biggie smalls thing.
I am thinking an art video (a disclaimer is a good idea), which aims at inducing a hypnotic state and feeding you subversive messages and also makes you feel good. Almost like doing a drug, but it should be constructive and aim to enlighten people.
Enlighten people through hypnosis?
Isn't enlightenment similar to epiphany--whereas one realizes some new way to organize their information? An organization that reconfigures a brain so that it
may work better, or smoother, faster, cleaner, more determined, etc...(assuming the goal is to better oneself, for one could realize a way to become more depraved, etc...)
I think that enlightenment deals with contrasts: a established thesis is known, an anti-thesis argues that which is known, and a synthesis is produced which is different than both the thesis and anti-thesis. Hypnosis deals with static: thesis, thesis, thesis, thesis, etc...(one thing is stated and repeated). Therefore the only enlightenment that I can conceive of happening would occur due to the observer (because everybody is capable of thinking differently about everything at any time) and not the artist. The artist's role would be like, as g-reg stated, a drug. But specifically a drug that one is already familiar with, a drug that the user can predict. Old drugs are hypnotic and mind comforting rather than expanding. And they feel good, people prefer them to new drugs. But when experiencing a new drug there is a lot of contrast to previous ways of thinking. There is a dialog between two worlds. A new view may be gained with which one can then re-organized their brain. New drugs are anti-static, anti-hypnosis.
Therefore the only hypnotic situation that I can think of, that would be constructive and enlighten people, would have to be so alien to human life that it forced every
observer to engage in another world, despite this new world being a static world. But I am skeptical that it is humanly possible to create this--all human products reek of humans.
And perhaps the recollection of the subversive messages that the observer of the hypnotic art was fed would begin a dialog in the observer and he would then become enlightened. But I don't think humans digest information that way. People are often oblivious to what's in front of them let alone what is secretly being whispered to them while they are in a sleep-like state.
Nonetheless, whoever is interested in hypnotic art, regardless of its ability to make one think in new ways, may want to look into Bruce McClure and expanded cinema. He has some videos on youtube. "Intervening in the trajectory of light from the source to the spectator, McClure creates on-screen cinematic projections that really only exist in the uniqueness of each individual performance. . .original ink sneeze printed on four film strips and projected with four modified projectors using brass plates, colored gels, focus manipulations and sound effects pedals." excerpt from TBA:05 festival program describing one of his works.
Charlie - thanks for a really thoughtful post. You might post those videos up here so we can comment on them.
I don't really see how much hipmotism has to do with enlightenment. I mean, there is hypnotism therapy, but it doesn't have much to do with enlightenment - just treating various physical and mental problems that aren't really related to the central way of organizing information - this is actually an interesting way of describing enlightenment. There is a mathmatician (I'll get you his name later) that describes the concept of "understanding" as being equal to the concept of "compression." I think that is pretty right on, but it's hard to explain right here.
Still, I don't know if that's what hipmotism is all about - it seems like it's more about control and will and altered states of consciousness.
Plus the popular impression is that hipmotism is a tool of evil cartoon bad guys (though I gather its actually pretty difficult to use it to control people... still I wonder what the ci a has figured out?).
disclaimer: im too hungover to talk smart in this thread right now.
werner herzog's 'heart of glass' is a good point of reference for those interested in utilizing hypnotism.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074626/
although if enlightenment and feelings of well-being are primary concerns, i don't think g-reg is interested in hypnotism, per se, but more inducing meditative blissed-out states. basically, meditation, bio-feedback, shit that makes the brain release alpha-waves...
also: "total cool dude" (me) = shawn
i accidentally didn't realize what i was doing when i typed in my login name or whatever. vodka makes the world do mysterious things.
Sweet, lots of feedback and posting going on here.
Ok, I think total cool dude is more on a similar vibe with what I was trying to get at. I am thinking of hypnosis as a blanket term that includes anything that uses frequencies, stimuli, etc, to induce different meditative states, and not really hypnosis in the stage performer sense.
Charlie, thanks for the great response. However, I'm not confused as to what I meant by enlightenment. I was speaking of that blessed state where people transend pain and suffering and listen to nirvana.
I have to totally disagree with the old drug/ new drug theory you have presented as I don't see any evidence of this (at least in my own in-depth experience). I would say that certain drugs are always good at lending themselves to meditative states whereas other are not, regardless of whether I've previously had the experience or not.
It seems that hypnosis by the cia has been very effective, but only when lsd is used.
Anyway, to simplify my idea, it would be a video which induces certain brain wave activity, sends messages about the structure of our new digital world, makes the person feel good and then in the end makes the person realize that it's all sort of a joke and that if you really want enlightenment you're going to have to find it for yourself.
i know that sound frequencies are very effective against the mind, and also flashes of light at certain frequencies...i mean the feraliminal lycanthropizer was supposedly very effective against peoples minds...and strobe lights can induce siezures...but there is a lot of research going on with mind altering frequencies...like i think this project is really scientific...but not like scientific in a way that is easy for artists to figure out...more like...cutting edge science....this will probably the the only kind of art in like 75 years....so maybe the best idea is to make it now...and then be known as like the leonardo of modern MODERN art...i guess gregs got fives on it.
all you really need to do is lock people in a small room and expose them to some strobe lights and some 18-20 khz sine waves.
then they will get really freaked out that way. it's sort of like est.
It's easy to break people. It's much harder to fix them. Using machines to fuck people up is an old hat.
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