Category Archives: Something to be excited about (in a good way)

Pictures at an Exhibition

“Pictures at an Exhibition,” as in I have one included in a group exhibition.
Night, a 2007 image from an installation of Heart Beats Light is included in New York University’s Photo and Emerging Media 2014-2015 Faculty and Staff Exhibition.  The exhibition opened on September 2, 2014 and closes on October 9, 2014.  The show is in two locations: the Gulf + Western Gallery (1st Floor, rear lobby) and the 8th Floor Gallery, 721 Broadway New York, NY 10003.

My piece is at the 721 Broadway location.  Admission is free and open to the public.

NYU’s Photo and Emerging Media faculty and staff of 2014-2015 include Ulrich Baer, Matthew Baum, Michael Berlin, Wafaa Bilal, Terry Boddie, Isolde Brielmaier, Kalia Brooks, Mark Bussell, Edgar Castillo, Iliana Cepero Amador, Charlotte Cotton, Yolanda Cuomo, Erika deVries, Thomas Drysdale, Brandy Dyess, Cate Fallon, Adrian Fernandez, Kara Fiedorek, Nichole Frocheur, Mark Jenkinson, Whitney Johnson, Elizabeth Kilroy, Elaine Mayes, Editha Mesina, Charles Nesbit, Lorie Novak, Paul Owen, Karl Peterson, Christopher Phillips, Shelley Rice, Fred Ritchin, Joseph Rodriguez, Bayeté Ross Smith, Abi Roucka, Peter Terezakis, Cheryl Yun-Edwards, and Deborah Willis.
Night, Peter  Terezakis,  Heart Beats Light, Yuha Desert 2007
Peter Terezakis, MPS
New York University Artist in Residence
http://www.terezakis.com
http://www.allthenamesofgod.com
http://www.sacredskysacredearth.com

Fracking Ban Stands in New York Town; Victory for Local Communities

 Fracking Ban Stands in New York Town; Victory for Local Communities March 12, 2013 | Feature The Story of Dryden: The Town That Fought Fracking
No longer content with the sale of property and goods, the Supreme Court has recently converted the political system of the United States for sale to those corporate entities willing to spend the most.  So before our new masters get around to having more laws changed in their favor, this is a good time to support Earth Justice.
“Earthjustice was created by a small group of attorneys with a passionate belief that the power of the law could be used to preserve the environment. They helped establish the right of citizens to go to court to enforce environmental laws when the government couldn’t or wouldn’t.”Trip Van Noppen, Earthjustice President

 

Self and Other:
An investigation in real-time double-duplex telepresence

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
– Lennon-McCartney

Self and Other is a computer mediated double duplex telepresence apparatus to redefine the limits of the sense of self.   — By Peter Terezakis and Vitor Freire based on the research of Henrik Ehrsson

Current work exploits the brain’s need to determine the location of a test subject’s body in physical space in order to recreate a physical identity separate from the actual body. Our goal is to use two subjects who will each experience the other’s body as their own.

Altered States of Consciousness •  Edited by Charles T. Tart • Anchor / Doubleday • Publication Date: 1972Background:

In my junior year of high school Charles Tart’s
Altered States of Consciousness introduced me to a world of academic research into the nature of reality.

A year later I discovered R.L. Gregory’s observations in Eye and Brain. This text introduced me to a nether world where I discovered that it was no longer possible to trust what my brain told me my eyes were seeing.

In 1974 I developed what was to become a life-long friendship with Joseph Shapiro, O.D. who was working on a book whose focus was the distinction between sight and vision. The distinction between those concepts took me nearly thirty years to both appreciate and include in my works of art.

Last semester I wrote an essay which referenced Gregory’s seminal work on vision and consciousness. In it I referenced the physics of image creation as it occurs within the structure of our eyes and how our brains then reinterpret raw data to conform the “observer’s” perception of the physical world (e.g. up and down) in a manner which best allows for the successful negotiation of daily life.
Optical data is both inverted and reversed on interior curve of the eye.  Image under license.

In December of 2012 Joseph introduced me to the research of a friend’s colleague through a YouTube video. The experiment I saw set me thinking about a new feedback and measurement system which might be used to isolate the mechanism which so radically reinterprets – and homogenizes – what we perceive as reality.

Fellow ITP classmate Vitor Freire and I met to discuss possible final project ideas for James George‘s class in Emerging Concepts in Video Art.

After some discussion, I suggested my permutation of Henrik Ehrsson’s (MD, PhD) experimental mechanism as a method to begin to investigate the sense of self. Up until now, researchers have been using simplex communication between a subject and the outside world. Using a lot of DIY, parts from Amazon, and OpenFramworks software, we are constructing a double-duplex VR system designed for two subjects to wear and experience simultaneously.

Each subject wears a VR goggle with cameras mounted on the front, looking out at the other. Subject “A” would be seeing what Subject “B” would be “seeing.” Subject “B” would be “seeing” what subject “A” would show. Simply changing a visual point of reference is not enough to create the condition we seek. If it were this easy, every film would be an out-of-the-body, spiritual experience.

The stressor to the system is to use multiple deceptive cues with as little latency as possible. This is analogous to the reason why jiu-jitsu techniques are so effective. Most joints in the human body are meant to bend in one direction. You can even twist a joint a little and still be within limits. But bend AND twist at the same time, and a visceral wave of panic will flood the body. Through low video latency (bend) and haptic (twist) cuing, it may be possible for the two subjects to experience a transfer of the sense of body awareness from one body to another.

The premise of the experiment is not to pilot a machine with consciousness, or to examine the relationship between consciousness and computational media. We are interested in exploiting some of the cues which the brain uses to determine where it is in physical space in order to create a transference of the sense of self to that of another body.  Experiments will explore the limits of what is currently known. Application of this technology may redefine experiences in play, romance, war, and work.

For this reason we are open to testing on wide segment of the population. Tests with same gender and similar physiognomies would most likely give rise to predictable experiences. For this reason we are interested in documenting same and mixed age, culture (language), gender, race, and physical disability trials.

LIMITS:
• Not recommended for children or a mixed adult-child partner.
• Not recommended for individuals with with gender and/or race issues.
• Not recommended for individuals who experience anxiety or panic attacks.
• Not recommended for individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
• Not recommended for fundamentalists (of any persuasion), individuals who are delusional,paranoid, recreational drug-users, schizophrenics, or those under psychiatric or psychological care.

References:
http://www.ehrssonlab.se/
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/science/23cnd-body.html
http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2007/0823out_of_body.shtml
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQA6TleIiLQ&feature=youtu.be
http://www.nature.com/news/out-of-body-experience-master-of-illusion-1.9569#/body

Afterword:

Coo coo ca choo

Terezakis
ITP
Tisch School of the Arts
http://www.ITPme.us
http://www.terezakis.com