The Museum of Associations

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Subconscious | Doors of the Mind

Museum of Associations

Doors of the Mind March - June 2017 The Museum of Associations is home to exquisite collections of artwork, artefacts and installations.

It provides a platform for exhibitors to showcase work examining the connection between two or more themes. ‘Doors of the Mind’ is the latest presentation to be exhibited at the museum of associations. In this exhibition, you will explore the hidden pathways of the subconscious mind. Through complex artefacts and installations, discover the responses made by designers in attendance of the Arts University Bournemouth to the theme of the subconscious. This work aims to uncover the identity of the subconscious mind and begin to explore its associations with other subjects. Each chapter of this catalogue is divided by multiple research themes. The first body of work in each section is a file of research in support of the exhbited piece. The second body of work examines this research and acts as a creative and intellectual response to each of the chosen themes.

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CONTENTS

08 DORMANCY

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Dormancy is defined as a period in an organism’s life where physical activity is temporarily slowed down.

This chapter of the exhibition explores the association between dormancy of the mind and dormancy within the natural world. The link stands between the styles of imagery portrayed within both forms. The organic style of line is present in the neurological networks of the brain and the macroscopic forms of the roots and branches of various vegetative bodies. The subconscious mind has been frequently interpreted to be a dormant space and this chapter of the exhibition examines this theme in a more macroscopic way.

Subconscious | Doors of the Mind

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REPRESSION

This piece is based on the subconscious mind being the main element of the where the imagery which occurs in our dreams comes from.

The piece is based on two key themes ‘subconscious’ and ‘repression’ which is represented through the illustrations in the way that the subconscious part of our mind has all the control over our dreams because the rest of the brain is asleep and resting. The theory by Sigmund Freud states that what we see in our dreams is a result of the unconscious which we control when we are awake. This final piece is about the artist’s dreams which have been recorded over a period of time in a dream diary. The most random images have been picked out with continuous lines around each character to present the thoughts that go through the subconscious which we quite cannot understand. The style chosen or the piece is gently child-like as the dreams recorded seem to have a following pattern of childish behaviour.

20 AWARENESS

26 STATES OF THE MIND

Awareness of the subconscious is a challenging task. By nature, one cannot fully understand the innate reasoning behind their behaviours and desires.

An answer can never be completely formed, instead an interpretation is made based on perceptions and knowledge, which we can then build up from. Within this section ones awareness of both external and internal environments will be tested, allowing each individual to uniquely respond to the piece. Using abstract imagery and illusions of the eye will force the viewer to extract what they uniquely see, consequently raising questions about what may be held in their own subconscious mind.

On this side of the exhibition the designer explores the different states of mind that our brain can enter and by associating the different waves created during these states and how it correlates to sound waves. The piece created is a music sheet using different wavelengths, each one representing a state of mind and showing how the more waves there are the lower the sound and the more waves the higher the pitch. This is shown by placing the waves where the different pitch in the music sheet is.

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Subconscious | Dormancy

DORMANCY 9

Curated by Matthew Ponting

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Macroscopic Dormancy Dormancy can be defined as a period where physical activity is temporarily slowed down or suspended. The subconscious mind is thoroughly associated with the premise of dormancy as data and information can be recalled from the strata of mind when it is not existing in our most prominent thoughts and sentiments. The word dormant has many associations not only with the subconscious but with artefacts of the natural world. Environmental dormancy tends to be closely associated with the change of ecological conditions including factors such as the weather or temperature. During winter, the metabolism of an organic body virtually comes to a standstill due to these lower temperatures that slow chemical transmissions. This means that the absorption of nutrients from the soil is limited as the plants need to photosynthesise is reduced. This causes the plant to drop its leaves as they are not needed to produce energy for the plant. Abscisic acid (ABA) gathers at the base of the leaf and signals it to drop.

This process is repeated throughout yearly seasonal cycles The visuals of plant roots and growth systems is related with the organic wiry style of line associated with the neurological networks found in the brain. These complex channels can transmit data by electrical impulse throughout the mind generating thought processes and ideas. It is possible for the mind to become partially of completely dormant through the shutting down of different departments of the brain.

By being comatose, a body can experience the temporary disability to react to external stimuli. The brain contains around 100 billion neurons which can only function with the co-operation of other neurons. Most neurons have a cell body, an axon and dendrites. Both of these concepts involve the transmission of data. The macroscopic photo (right) was taken by the designer upon examination of an organic tree root, the pathway of which nutrients is passed from the soil to the tree for the taking place of photosynthesis.

Subconscious | Dormancy

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Subconscious | Dormancy

This piece entitled ‘Dormant Networks’ is based around the concept of temporarily inactive systems. It highlights the connection between the dormancy of the natural world and of the subconscious mind through the organic style of line. The image (left) is a photogram created in a darkroom workshop using segments of frayed string.

This material was a confident choice of media as it’s capable of being manipulated into diverse compositions and forms to fluently symbolise the association of dormancy. It indicates the shutting down or fraying of the mind; the cutting of paths and the decay of network systems. Effects of this can include a patient becoming comatose; in the state of a coma. Other conditions that involve the decaying of neurological network systems include dementia and Alzheimer’s.

This piece is symbolic of this decay as the mind develops throughout the stages of dormancy. In association, it also visually represents how vegetative growth networks can develop and grow. Dormancy can also be traced to exploitations such as deforestation as these roots and paths can be damaged. It can be imagined that brain neurons and living vegetation can become dormant in similar ways. In most instances, with the root systems intact, the organism can regrow. The variable detail, depth and contrast resemble the complexity of both the mind and of the natural world.

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Subconscious | Repression

REPRESSION 15

Curated by Angelika Janik

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Subconscious | Repression

Our thoughts come out to the surface in ‘disguised forms’ which is why they can be considered as becoming clear or recognised in people’s dreams. Sigmund Freud believes that the urges and impulses we have and hide from others are often disturbing or could even be harmful. He also says that the ‘unconscious expresses itself in a symbolic language’.

Sigmund Freud who is considered the ‘father of psychoanalysis’ is the author of a study based on our dreams. In his analytical work ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ Freud explores the ways in which we can understand our dreams and which aspects of different personalities do they relate to. He believes you can often define personality to a certain extent because this is where the subconscious mind works at a very intense level. Furthermore, Freud says that nothing humans do occurs as an accident on in other words by chance. Every action and thought is controlled by our subconscious mind up to a certain level.

As we all know, society lives and functions following certain rules. For everyone to live in the civilised society, many people have urges and impulses they stop themselves from showing to anyone else. To repress the urges and actions people are constantly thinking about what they are about to do.

So therefore, when these are controlled we need to release them. Freud believes that this happens in dreams.

His theory states that there are three main parts to the human mind. They are called; Id, Ego and Superego. The Id is explained as being cantered around thoughts based on impulses, pleasure, fulfilment, desires and the urges spoken about in this article. Secondly, the Ego is described as the conscious, the moral and the rational. Lastly, out of the three states of mind Superego works with both the Ego and Id to create a decision using the two. It is described as ‘responsible for enforcing the moral codes of the ego.’

When we are dreaming, we can get an idea of our subconscious which means that the superego state does not work with the other two states to control what is going on.

Freud says that because what could be considered s ‘guards’ are let down by us when we are dreaming, our unconscious has a chance to act out. Therefore, many people consider their dreams as ‘not logical’ or ‘weird.’

Following this theory, the reason for the lack of memory when it comes to dreams in many cases springs from the superego being at work as soon as we wake up. The superego at this point can be considered as doing its job and protecting our conscious mind from any disturbing or unpleasant images and some desires all imagined because of our unconscious.

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Dream Diary

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The theme of this piece is ‘Repression.’ It explores the control our subconscious mind has over our dreams.

(Steve Martin) ‘The conscious mind is the editor, and the subconscious mind is the writer.’ The artefact explores a visual story written by dreams of an individual. The subconscious mind is the part of the brain which works at night when we are resting and creates the images we imagine. However, everything we see in our dreams is information collected and stored by our which we are not necessarily aware of.

The images used in the final piece are all based on a collection of an individual’s dreams which have been recorded. The key elements used in this piece like certain objects which are mostly the focus of the individual’s dreams.

Furthermore, the colour scheme used in the visual outcome is based on examining the main colours which make an appearance in the collection of the dreams chosen. The collections of images were firstly drawn out on paper by hand to be able to develop the ideas further digitally. The characters in the piece are followed by numerous lines in shapes to outline them to represent a sense of confusion and uncertainty to the audience of where these dreams where going and where they have rooted from.

The next thought was to fold the final piece into a shape people are familiar with and popular within childhood activities which is the classic boat hat. This is because the dreams have appeared to be more childish than expected from an adult’s perspective.

Subconscious | Repression

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Subconscious | Awareness

AWARENESS 21

Curated by Celia Vandersteen

A Feather Drifting Above the Elemental

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A Poem by Numi Who

He directs a unique native dialect attractive to his personal aesthetics to create projections of mythologies from commonplace images and objects upon which you superimpose your own wild imaginings as you peer into his worlds contrived by his preoccupations with unimportant matters‌ She existed in the passion of a micro-culture that shapes the core of macro-cultures that precede the simple summaries of institutionalized, commercialized cultures as she repurposes images at rocket speed, influencing the future of art in trivial ways‌

Subconscious | Awareness

When they were not being so despicable feigning artistic airs, they would remix what has been and what has been created with what is in hopes of presenting wider contexts within which to view art, the contexts themselves being compartmentalized by media and historical narratives, but nevertheless presenting a richer experience for the audience…

Ah, the audience!

How they love to taste with their mind!

So she, and he, both bake and baste and brew and braze diverse elements of a time period and present them as a singular dish to be slowly savored by all the senses – a display of a period painting on a period chair next to a period lamp with a backdrop of period wallpaper and a row and a stack of period books with period technology playing period music, all in a musty bouquet of period fruits, earths, florals, herbals, minerals, and woods, sampled just before the taste of period bitternesses and sweetnesses, of the period saltiness and sourness, as if the olfactory bulb confers with ribonucleotides, and taste receptors debate with aromatic odors …

So together, they construed time lags between the micro and the macro that flow from the bottom of culture up, re-contextualizing content to suit their fancies and political agendas, always at odds, paying no heed to historical realities, twisting truth as if it were mere clay to be molded and shaped into whatever surreal constructs they wished, or needed, so as to manipulate perception and thereby secure individual reproduction and survival…

If you’ve followed me so far, the you will come to the conclusion that he and she work together in mutually complimentary ways toward achieving one common goal – not necessarily ‘dumbing down’ information, but making it more congenial to the rapid eye movements of a mass-information populace who then find it Pinteresting, in categorical ways…

One begs to ask, “Why?” but I’ve already answered that on the most elemental level; so we may move on…

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knowledge or perception of 24

a situation or fact

Subconscious | Awareness

Awareness, by definition, suggests that we are able to instinctively know how to respond to a stimulus. Whether that is through nature or nurture is dependant ultimately on the subject. However, understanding the roots of the response and the complexity behind it is much more of a challenge. We have five senses we are aware of, but how do we account for the awareness of senses regarding intuition, presence, necessities like hunger and thirst, or time?

Simply, this piece is a colourful abstract painting for a wall.

However, the artist’s intention was for people to look past the charming facade and interact with quick perceptions. Firstly, to be aware of the clinical association to the brain and its subconscious.

Perhaps via Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans or the rustic texture connoting a deterioration or layered awareness. Secondly, despite reality making it a flat piece, your mind can accept the illusion, challenge one’s knowledge of what can be seen and visualise it three dimensionally, using simply the aid of a tool.

And lastly, to question the images being conjured up in the mind, to attempt a greater understanding of their subconscious and the emotion attached to a response.

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Subconscious | States of the Mind

STATES OF THE MIND 27

Curated by Luis Fernando Navarro Faubla

What are the States of Mind?

Our subconscious mind is a part of our brain in a way hidden to us, we know very little about how it works exactly and how we can access it with ease. However, our brain can enter several states of mind naturally when it gets to a certain frequency, measured in (Hz), and can be represented in waves.

Each state of mind has its own set of characteristics representing your state of consciousness and the brain activity. We can achieve 5 different states of mind (Gamma, Beta, Alpha, Theta, Delta).

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Delta poster made by the designer during the process of his final piece, showing the wave with circles as he got his inspiration by associating grapes with neurons.

Subconscious | States of the Mind

29 Beta (14-40Hz), the walking consciousness and reasoning wave, state of awareness, logic, and critical reasoning. Alpha (7.514Hz), the deep relaxation wave, daydream, light meditation, it is the gateway to the subconscious mind and lies at the bottom of your conscious awareness.

Theta (4–7.5Hz), deep meditation and sleeping wave, light sleep/ REM, realm of subconscious only experience momentary as you drift off to sleep. Delta (Theta 4-7.5Hz), the deep sleep wave, this is the slowest of the frequencies and is experienced when dreaming and sleeping, when awareness is fully detached. Gamma (Above 40 Hz), recently discovered it’s the fastest frequency, little is known about this state of mind, but is associated with a burst of insight and high information processing.

The Anthem of the Mind Work created by a design student in response to the Museum of Association, The Subconscious Mind exhibition. In his work, he explores how the different states of mind have different frequencies and how this frequency correlate to sound waves. The basic idea is the lower the frequency is, when talking about sound, the higher the pitch will be and the higher the frequency the lower the pitch will be.

Therefore, he has produced a piano music sheet joining both the waves that represents each state of mind and how would they sound if they had a frequency that humans could hear.

The colour choice used by him are due to changing the Hz brain waves to THz that are the waves created by light that make colour, so the spectrum is red to violet, where red is 480 THz (lowest frequency) and violet 750 THz (highest frequency).

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Subconscious | States of the Mind

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The Anthem of the Mind piece displayed on the Museum of Associations wall. 2017

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www.museumofassociations.co.uk @museumofassociations

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‘Doors of the Mind’ Museum of Associations, 2017 ©