Technoetic syncretic environments

Abstract

This article presents and reflects upon artistic artworks at the intersection of virtual and physical computer systems with wet (biological) systems, in reference to Roy Ascott’s ‘moist theory’. It is divided into two sections. The first section offers contextualization by pointing to Darcy Ribeiro’s considerations of differentiations among Brazilians, thus leading to an expectation of miscegenation that assimilates and incorporates races and beliefs in a syncretic way. To this background is added a theoretical framework based on semiotics entwined with mathematics and physics from a set of authors. Both aspects are intertwined with visceral sensations and feelings which emerged from immersible field researches. Glimpses of the 1997 Xingu expedition are introduced as an example of such immersible field research to unveil aspects related with moist theory. The second section presents four case studies that illustrate all of the concepts previously mentioned. Here, syncretism is understood as a field for events that engender the artworks. These artworks are created as metaphorical journeys aimed at expressing potential shamantic experiences and configured as a set of symbiotic systems. Two of these artworks explore neural connections; their research involves computer devices that allow human interferences in the behaviours of autonomous agents in virtual reality simulations. The resultant systems are artificially alive organisms in flux with the rhythms of the autonomous programmed processes; these change each time they run within the computer, allowing the user to symbiotically interfere in the algorithmic nature of artificial ‘seeds’. These poetic realms are metaphors of the flow of life itself. Summing up, they are technoetic artworks that could only arise from the Brazilian melting pot of cultural, racial and theoretical mixtures.

MindFluctuations: Poetic, Aesthetic and Technical Considerations of a Dance Spectacle Exploring Neural Connections

“…An aphorism sums up the possible field that presents itself to the computational artist programming such virtual realities and the choreographers working with them: "If a picture is worth a thousand words, an interactive simulation, a virtual reality, is worth thousands of millions of them", as quoted in [6] (p. 170). Snapshots of these virtual worlds during interactions show only some views of these micro-universes; they are nothing more than glimpses.…”

“…In the meantime, it was possible to entanglement the weaving of intertwined nets in which the virtual and the human were united to present these metaphorical realities. Consequently, it is appropriate to call them symbiotic relationships, as discussed in [6] (p. 179) and [26] (p. 26).…”

“…After these states were scanned and used as input, they were interpreted by the computer and influenced virtual scenarios projected over a screen on the backstage. The resulting scenarios are artificially alive systems allowing the dancers to "symbiotically interfere in the algorithmic nature of artificial 'seeds'", as cited in [6] (p. 169). Composers and musicians John Driscoll and Steve Hilmy performed the music live in a sound environment created with robotic instruments and electronic music.…”

“…Many conceptual, aesthetic and poetic aspects of other similar works have been extensively discussed elsewhere in articles such as [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13]. Here, the aim is to describe how the design and development of MindFluctuations have established the necessary ground for the production to unfold.…”

“…MindFluctuations employs the customized virtual reality software NumericVariations to explore neural connections for spectacles, performances and sitespecific installations, a topic extensively described in [6], [14]. It uses a neural headset and a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) to achieve its aim.…”