Frederick Ostrenko

December 3, 2009
Research Project: Daniel Peltz

Research/Thesis Proposal
Title
Pirates, Indians, and Astronauts: A Guide to Cyberspace, the
Wilderness and the Unconscious Mind

Research Question
Is there a longing for collective wholeness in humans? What
connections exist between people in cyberspace, the wilderness and
the unconscious mind? What happens when people become
connected?

Short Description
My project consists of a set of three experiments that strives to
connect people in unusual ways. Each experiment looks for similarities
between people while put into a particular type of ethereal, or
unconnected space. The spaces I am using are: cyberspace, the
wilderness, and the unconscious mind. Within each of these a different
subject is examined and eventually used to create a connection from
the similarities:
Ethereal Space Subject

Cyberspace Persona

The Wilderness Body

The Unconscious Soul

Mind

By creating the particular connections between people in the individual

spaces I create, I hope my participants experience a strengthened
communicative bond that lasts after their encounter with my project.
Overall, I am testing the hypothesis that there is an innate longing by
humans to discover a connective network between themselves on the
levels of persona, body, and soul. I am also curious what happens
during and after the connections are made on each level.
Long Description
The established notion of longing for wholeness or completeness
comes from the concepts of Eros as interpreted by Socrates. It was one
of the discussed opinions on the concept of love in Plato’s Symposium.
Love or Eros is one of the few unarguable traits of what it means to be
a part of a living / evolving ecology. Every living creature had parents
with the desire of wholeness. It seems however that in many people
the other possibilities that lie within the spectrum of connectivity
between people is tucked away into the unconscious part of the human
mind. This is the part of the spectrum that I am interested in – the
hidden connections that exist between people. Each of the following
project headings focuses on this idea and exists for the participants to
make personal discoveries within the spectrum of connectivity.

Cyberspace + Persona (Lonely Astronauts via Daemon)

Untitled Experiment: This particular project will deal with the creation
of a persona or avatar within cyberspace. The goal is to create a
hypperreal environment where virtual / physical reality and artificial /
human intelligence coincide. The project will enable participants to live
as a persona and try to connect with others living as other personas. It
will examine how persona is a type of mask that might shrink or grow
connection between people. Emphasis will be placed on creating a
quest for the users to complete together in order to bridge two planes.

Wilderness + Body (Disappearing Indians via Golem)

Park Cube City: This is a project set up in a public park in Rhode Island.
A solar panel charged a battery all day. During twilight a fan connected
to the battery turned on, inflating a 10' x 10' plastic cube. Once totally
inflated and when it was completely dark, a projector turned on
illuminating the front of the cube. The image was video of a city
skyline. Participants were able to enter the cube at night. While inside
everything outside is blurred and the only clear aspect is the projection
on the front wall. This project tries to bring people together within the
wilderness by creating a point of focus for people to go inside of. It
transforms the wilderness into a place meant to connection.
The Unconscious + Soul (Crazy Pirates via Psyche)

Let Them See Your Insides: This experiment tries to bridge the
unconscious and the conscious mind of a participant by attempting to
access their soul via automatic talking shared within a group.
Connection is explored through potential telepathy and letting go of
the senses.

The project is a play on the “Ganzfeld Experiment.” Typically the

experiment is set up to detect telepathy between two individuals. One
is the sender and the other is the receiver. The sender looks at an
image while the receiver is removed from all sensory stimuli. The idea
is that without physical stimulus the receiver is more in tune to their
natural psychic power and more susceptible to incoming signals.

I created a near replica of the experiment where a group of a dozen

people watched a video clip of the first lunar landing. They stood on
one side of a large room staring at a projection of the event. I directed
two volunteers that did not know what the rest were watching to go
inside of a tipi that I created. They lied down on green foam pads and
put on goggles with frosted lenses. At the top of the tipi was a
projector shining downs on them flashes of light corresponding to
audio played inside the structure.

The audio consisted of a custom composed soundtrack of binaural

beats. When two different tones from two different speakers are
perceived by a listener, beats are created in the mind. Flashes of green
and blue were shown from the tipi’s apex onto the volunteers inside
which corresponded to the perceived beats. This particular
combination of video and audio is a typical method of removing all
physical sensation and modify brainwaves in such a way that they end
up synchronized to the perceived beats inducing particular feelings, in
this case physical calm combined with active mind. It is meant to open
you mind to the possibility of outside thoughts.

Methodology:

My methodology typically consists of creating many iterations and

improving each one. I have a heard time visualizing a project as a
completed work. It helps me to jump right in to making and
researching at the same time. I treat any idea I have as a seed that
can grow as I work around conceptual or material problems.

As far as this particular work goes each piece exists as an experiment.

Every time I show the piece I am using it to test against my overall
hypothesis. Although this is a scientific method I do not see these
works as relating to the advancement of science. They are geared
towards the advancement of an individual’s psyche. I want to take
what science has accomplished for the masses and bring it to a
personal level. The projects merely borrow aesthetic and systematic
aspects of science in order to achieve a greater effect on the
participant. It helps me to organize the projects as experiments with a
scientific undertone. Each one has a particular effect and contributes
to an overall goal, so the organization of research in conjunction with
execution and recoding of results is vital in extrapolating a gauge of
effect on my audience. The action of gauging is important the work as
it gives it a sense of purpose as perceived by the participant. The
participant is meant to be inclined to interact with the works. They are
meant to want to contribute to the project and assist in finding
answers.

Historical Context:

Many aspects of my work such as cyberspace, neuroscience,

experimentation, the unconscious, ether, connectedness, art + life
have all been wrestled with artists and other makers in the past. A few
that have significantly influenced this particular work include Helio
Oiticica, Lygia Clark, Jeffery Shaw, Ant Farm, Superflex, Stelarc, Joseph
Beuys, Bas Van Ader, Lygia Pape, Felix Torres Gonzales, Olafur
Elliason, Rafael Lozano Hemmer, Ernesto Neto, Robert Morris, and
David Hammons.

I want make art that exists alongside my curiosities in life. I want to let
other people in on what I think is fascinating. Lygia Clark might be one
of the biggest influences on this particular work. Her evolution from
interactive sculpture to art therapy sessions has influenced my
practice significantly. She was creating situations for participants to
open their mind to new forms of experience. She aimed to create a
lasting effect for those that experienced her work. Her move towards
involving the participant more and more into her work is something I
see as an attempt to legitimize direct personal intervention on the
psyche. She was combining neuroscience with art in a way that
expands the relationship of the participant within a group.

Theoretical Context:

The realms of psychology, and simulation are pivotal to the creation of

my work. Specifically the work of Carl Jung and his writings on the
collective unconscious and archetypes has been one of the most
influential theoretical conglomerates that I have used in conjunction
with this work. I am essentially trying to make visible a form of the
collective unconscious to people who either don’t believe in it or don’t
take it for granted if it in fact does exist. I want to make use of
particular archetypes inherent in people to draw connections between
them.

Jean Baudrillard’s writing on simulation has also been a major influence

in this work. His thought that society is a place where signs of the real
have replaced the real is interesting when discussing connection
between people in society. In order to create connection one most
create a society. Society provides opportunity for connection. When
there is nothing real left in society can people connect to their
environment? It seems many contemporary machines revolve around
the two themes of replication and connection. Computers are a prime
example of something whose purpose it is to connect and replicate.
Perhaps through replication there is opportunity for greater connection
between people.

Material Choices:

The materials I am using for this work all relate to the theme from
which the particular experiment belongs to. All of the works will have
an aspect of technology that are a part of the life of a modern
individual. I am mixing these technologies with everyday materials to
construct spaces. I would also like to create a guide for people to make
their own versions of the experiments that I create. I want the
materials to be easy to find and easy to build with. I want people to be
able to replicate the experience I create if they so desire.