TranZlab Electronic Orphanage, Los Angerles 2002- 2003
"We are living on the edge, in complex mixed realties, between cyberspace and material space, between particles and pixels. I would argue that a whole new substrate of our lived experience is being formed from the technologically driven convergence of Bits, Atoms, Neurons and Genes & the Big B.A.N.G. From the artists point of view this is ceating a new media universe. The first stage of this convergence can easily be seen as the digitally dry data of the computer mixes with the wet biology of living systems, producing a kind of "moist media". "
Roy Ascott
TranZlab is an introduction for artists, musicians, students and designers, etc to explore their own unconscious as a source for collaborations and widening the scope of their own work.
The exploration includes mind/body linkage, kinesthetics and body movement, discussion of virtual realities, technology/mind linkage, and the generation and simulation of interactive and immersive worlds.
5 sessions took place at the Electronic Orphanage. Thanks to Miltos Manetas 2003
TranZ lab v1.0 workshop:
exploration of worlds through trance.
Wednesday December22 2002 8pm
This week TranZlab introduces the idea of "moist media" and the mix of digital, analog and neural to open up new processes and approaches to artistic practices. There will be a discussion and a trance demo of "Structural Couplings", in other words an exploration of how the psyche interacts with physical spaces.
"When you have an informational relationship with another entity, you enter into what the informational biologists call structural coupling. One way of thinking about it is we have a relationship, say, with a teacher, you have an information relationship and in fact one of the things teachers never talk about but is quite true, teachers learn just as much from you as you do from them. Its a structural coupling. Information, in terms of learning, is always a two way street or always a multi-way street, there is no such thing as one way learning."
Mark Pesce
TranZ lab v2.0 workshop:
exploration of worlds through trance.
Wednesday January 8 2003 8pm
This week TranZ lab will explore and give participants tools for self-hypnosis. Techniques and technologies that can be used for self exploration will be demo'd such as Brainwave Entrainment and the Brainwave Generator. There will be live demos of how the body / mind linkage works to alter our perceived realities. The concept of mindware will also be introduced : software for the mind.
TranZ lab workshop v3.0:
exploration of worlds through trance.
Wednesday January 15 2003 8.30 pm
This week TranZ lab will explore the world of Trance in the context of Western Africa's Yoruba religion. The session is lead by renowned Ayo Adeyemi, Ifa Priest and Yoruba Master Drummer.
Ayo will demonstrate how different beats are directed to different parts of the mind and body. Participants may also take part in "Yanke" (Yan-keh), which means "to knock it out", a ritual from the Yoruba heartland. In the shamanistic trance state, the shaman's spirit travels out of the body into the spiritual worlds. In the possession dances of cultures like the Fon and the Yoruba of West Africa, this directionality is reversed: the spirit beings travel from their worlds into the body of the dancer so that they can be physically incarnated and present in this world. In these music-religious traditions, the rhythm of the drums plays a central role. Gods or deities (called loa among the Fon or orisha among the Yoruba) have their own distinctive rhythm and chant that is played by a small drum ensemble.
TranZ lab workshop v 4.0:
exploration of worlds through trance.
Wednesday January 22 2003 8.00 pm
This week TranZlab explores the subtle mind/body connection and its relationship to the poetic unconscious. Join artists, writers and performers in a workshop that will help you develop your awareness of the mind/body linkage through meditative trance states and introduce you to to a history of trance in experimental art movements. There will also be an overview of web-based techno-trance exercises, references of trance states from history and a discussion about cult phenomena such as psychic surgery and automatic writing.
"memories are informational detrius that keep us from manifesting action in the now body. Through trance we can explore the poetic consciousness that allows for free association between ideas and people. We will attempt to download individual experience into a collective public space and manifest there the possible and the political of bodies, through language and gesture."
the workshop is based on work by carrie paterson and ellie shoja
TranZ lab v5.0 workshop:
exploration of worlds through hypnosis.
Wednesday February 12 2003 8pm
TranZlab takes us on a journey into contemporary trance culture
vRave artist Matthias Beeguer and red thread present a demo of their sound/visual mixes and tools.
This workshop is essential to those interested in the rave scene and how sound and visuals work together to cook up extreme states of trance.
"we'd like to talk about electronic music...the synergy of dancing crowds with sound+visuals and the different frequency targets related to the body...the emotional virtual playground created at a party... a little bit about dancing technologies in parallel with other ancient rituals.....we'll show a short clip of our stuff with some music....fredrik proposed we could do it live...i bring my turntables we bring the laptop and projector and we'll give a little sample of the real thing....."
www.redthread.net http://www.redthread.net
TranZ lab workshop v6.0:
exploration of worlds through trance.
Wednesday February 19 2003 8.00 pm
See below for address / directions
This week Oliver Hess will present an overview of research on synesthesia and illustrate synthetic methods for access to this phenomenon. There will also be a brief overview of Virtual Reality technologies, software and approaches to simulating environments.
"Specifically I will show technology like the game REZ which attempts
to combine sound, image, and interaction to stimulate this synergy
(or short-circuit) in the nervous system."
synaesthesia or US synesthesia [s ni s i z ]
n.
1. Physiol. a sensation experienced in a part of the body other than the part stimulated.
2. Psychol. the subjective sensation of a sense other than the one being stimulated.
For example, a sound may evoke sensations of colour.
[from New Latin, from {syn-} + -esthesia, from Greek aisthesis sensation]
synaesthetic or US {synesthetic} (s ni s t k)
The workshop is free and this workshop is the last of the current series. Some field trips are being planned to explore such themes as Vegetal Reality, Desert events, etc.
"I am also quite curious about what is hidden in my own subconscious, as I have great difficulties in reaching that area .
So I really think that your short introduction may have helped me get a little bit better in touch with myself...
Last night an amazing thing happened to me: I woke up several times and every time I woke up I remembered my dreams, altogether five dreams in one night.. this is very astounding for me, as I usually forget so fast about my dreams, that I only sometimes can remember a short sequence when I wake up in the middle of a dream in the morning.
Andrew D." after TranZlab v2.0
"Just wanted to say how much I was touched by the lab last night. Not just me, but David too. An interesting thing happened yesterday after the lab and I wanted to share this with you. I told you that I found it strange that I was unable to recall any of the things you discussed during the hypnosis. I couldn't understand how others could recall so easily things you discussed, while I could not remember anything at all. The last thing I remember was relaxing the body as you went on and relaxed the head, the shoulders the neck etc...The last thing that I clearly remember was being stuck at the neck or I think you said throat. I remember trying to relax my neck, but it was so tense I had to work on it longer. Then I remember relaxing my body all the way to my feet, and then maybe counting I'm not so sure what happened then but I felt that I was following your voice, my mind was drifting to other places..I don't know. Hard to explain. But David had a much more intense time. Actually very different. He said he felt a bit lost because he couldn't visualize feelings. I think at some point you asked us to imagine feelings or describe them (again I don't remember so much), but he said when you asked this, he couldn't really do it. He just felt like it was not within him to do this and it troubled him quite a lot. So much so, that I think it may have triggered a breakdown within him. Is that possible? After David and I talked about the tranzlab it came up that David has always had a bit of difficulty expressing his feelings and acknowledging them which is a sore subject for him. He says that he has always tried to disassociate himself from his feelings. So as you can imagine, last night was very difficult for him. Like I said, he had a bit of an emotional breakdown yesterday and this morning and we barely slept at all last night. He seriously broke down and cried like a baby and shared with me all of his fears and anxiety about his feelings and depressions. I think the tranzlab may have triggered something in his unconscious mind that had been waiting to escape for years. Do you think this is possible? I can't describe what happened over the past 18 hours, but he had this huge release and I haven't seen that before. I think it was such a good release for him. I think there is so much more to be seen. Anyways, I just wanted to share this with you and get your thoughts on whether this was normal or not? You even said it was strange to see colors as he did. What does all this mean. Whew...what a day! Hope yours is going o.k. too.
Amy" after TranZlab v2.0
"Sorry you weren't at the group Wednesday. I found the artists invited really wonderful and playful. They are prolific, hard working but have a sense of
play with their art that is invigorating. Obviously they don't take themselves too seriously and are open to a fluid way of being that I strive
for.
The next class is going to be the bomb. It will be about lucid dreaming and the sense of smell as an underplayed realm of enjoyment and perception.
Joan" after tranZlab v5.0
