AUGMENTED BODY, ALTERED MIND
AUGMENTED BODY, ALTERED MIND
An interactive exhibition that brings together art, science and technology, inviting audiences to visualise the way they think and how their brains work.
Augmented Body, Altered Mind uses a brain-computer interface to immerse visitors in an audiovisual environment that unfolds in real time. Co-created by the public, this immersive artwork explores the intersections of the climate challenge, individual agency, and variations in the human brain and cognition.
AUGMENTED BODY,
ALTERED MIND
by AlanJames Burns
curated by Marek Wolynski
7 — 16 October 2022, 12PM – 7PM
The Earth Vision
13 Soho Square, London W1D 3QF
Augmented Body, Altered Mind is a collaborative, interactive exhibition weaving a brain-computer interface with an audiovisual environment. Created by environmental artist AlanJames Burns, the show celebrates different cognitive abilities used for creative problem-solving. Augmented Body, Altered Mind explores the potential to collectively reshape the world towards a more diverse and sustainable future.
Delving into the climate challenge and tech-growth narratives, Augmented Body, Altered Mind examines correlations between the natural world, neurology, philosophy, and neurodivergence (which references variations in the human brain and cognition). Immersed in a projected environment and multi-channel soundscape, visitors are invited to co-create the artwork in real time by wearing a brain-sensing headset that detects electric signals generated by different brain waves. By doing so, audiences control evocative visuals reminiscent of environmental, neurological, and biological imagery and patterns.
Climate change disproportionately affects people with disabilities, including from the lack of accessible information and vulnerabilities in extreme weather events. Underpinned by the theory of complementary cognition and the psychological aspects of climate challenge, the exhibition encourages new approaches to thinking about the accelerating environmental crisis and how it could be tackled. Highlighting the importance of accessibility, Augmented Body, Altered Mind welcomes all audiences to engage, collaborate, and shape the artwork.
Climate emergency and well-being are recurrent themes in Burns' interdisciplinary projects. Augmented Body, Altered Mind follows the artist's previous artworks, including VR experiences and a series of psychoacoustic sound installations inside caves, in which caverns personified the consciousness of Mother Earth, who struggled with declining mental health brought on by the human impact on her body.
Augmented Body, Altered Mind was initially conceived during Burns' residency at Science Gallery Dublin in 2020 and presented at Carlow Arts Festival in Ireland 2022. Coinciding with Frieze Week 2022, London’s busiest art week, Augmented Body, Altered Mind is a fully developed exhibition curated by Marek Wolynski and hosted by The Earth Vision charity.
The artwork has been co-created by Dylan Coburn Gray and Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan (writing), Michael Riordan (composition), and collective Ibragim (digital visuals). The project is generously supported by Arts Council England, Culture Ireland and Arts and Disability Ireland.
ACCESSIBLE DESCRIPTION
In Augmented Body, Altered Mind, you can wear a small headset and interact with visuals and audio. The headset is activated by the electricity in your brain. Because everyone’s brain is different, each experience of the artwork is unique.
Accessibility documents: Easy Read Accessibility Statement
COLLATERAL EVENTS – ‘IN CONVERSATION’
The exhibition was accompanied by panel discussions exploring the subjects of:
Neurodivergent Storytelling and Climate Change
Creativity – Neurodiversity – Sustainability
“The artwork throws open the diversity of perception by presenting cognitive divergence as a powerful tool to re-shape the world. Human brains have evolved to process the same information in ways that are specialised and much different from each other. I hope that Augmented Body, Altered Mind encourages creative problem-solving so needed in the face of the environmental crisis.”
— AlanJames Burns, Artist
“Interactive art has the power to effectively reflect and represent the society in which it belongs. Augmented Body, Altered Mind creates a welcoming space to watch, co-create, learn, and enjoy. Coinciding with the Frieze Week, the exhibition aims to engage and inspire diverse communities, exploring the extraordinary creative potential of human minds.”
— Marek Wolynski, Curator
“We aim to support emerging artists and creatives who interrogate social and environmental sustainability narratives in their practices. Alan’s work is truly inspiring as it challenges people's perspectives on current social issues. It is great how the audiences become part of the creative process and thanks to the technological implementation define the visual of the artwork.”
— Maggio Carizi,
Director of The Earth Vision
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AlanJames Burns (he/they), is a neurodivergent, environmental and audiovisual artist. The focal point of his practice remains the human mind, particularly the non-linear ever-fleeing system of divergent thoughts it creates. Since 2016, the artist has developed critically acclaimed multi-sensorial installations in caves, exploring the concept of aural consciousness and wellbeing. In 2019, Burns’s site-specific work, Entirely hollow aside from the dark was installed at Creswell Crags caves that features the only examples of Ice Age Rock Art on the British Isles. Burns’ previous work also includes Silicon Synapse, a VR experience commissioned by Fingal County Council and EU Science Hub – Joint Research Centre, that was installed within the repurposed historic setting of the Carnegie Library in Ireland.
www.alanjamesburns.com | @alanjamesburns
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Marek is a curator, producer, and cultural strategist developing large-scale projects and interdisciplinary collaborations across spatial, visual, digital, and experiential arts. Championing innovative and sustainable dialogues between tradition and modernity, Marek often works at the intersection of art, nature, science, and technology. He has orchestrated creative commissions, led public art initiatives, and directed multifaceted projects with the British Council, United Nations, Mayor of London, and European Parliament, among others. Currently, Marek is Curator at Riyadh Art, the first national public art initiative in Saudi Arabia, and Executive Producer at D-Fuse, a global arts collective working with environmental storytelling.
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The Earth Vision is a registered charity with the goal to repurpose city centres and bring communities together through art. Led by Maggio Carizi, The Earth Vision promotes social and environmental sustainability through art-inspired interventions, by making the most of existing local assets.
www.theearthvision.com | @theearthvision_org
