Mutations of Presence explores spectrality through sequencing bio-feedback to a machine; revealing electrical signal of the body as robotic gesture.

The work establishes a relational configuration of human and machine, made up of electrical signals, bio-feedback and painterly gestures. 

 The process was developed using data recorded using an eeg headset, a computer vision system tracking the position of the body to feed into a custom robotic collaborator. 

Theme: Spectrality
Collaborators: Sougwen Chung & D.O.U.G._4. (Drawing Operations Unit:  Generation_4).

Can accidents be tamed through circuits?

Are we at the onset of a new, collaborative imagination — of radical new intersubjectivities? 

Are we at the onset of a new, collaborative imagination — of radical new intersubjectivities? 

Are we at the onset of a new, collaborative imagination — of radical new intersubjectivities? 

How can we build alternative configurations of technology towards the cognitive development of the human subject?

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Mutations Paintings

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08

Artefact Nº 8
2021, Paint on Canvas,
44 x 34 in

For the past few years, I’ve been developing a meditation practice.  During lockdown especially, it provided a centering ritual amidst the isolation and uncertainty. I learned it was possible to record the electrical signals of my brainwaves during meditation using an EEG Headset. I was curious about what that would look like, and how it would feel to draw with it. 

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01

Artefact Nº 1
2021, Paint on Canvas,
44 x 34 in

“We do not have at our disposal computers capable of following the flow of cultures, the poetic nodes, the dynamics of languages, the phases of cultures in confrontation. Should we hope that our imaginary construct of Relation might some day be "confirmed" in formulas we can read on the monitor screen? Can accident, which is the joy of poetics, be tamed through circuits?”

 

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06

Artefact Nº 6
2021, Paint on Canvas,
44 x 34 in
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04

Artefact Nº 4
2021, Paint on Canvas,
44 x 34 in

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Exhbition & Performance


The artefacts engage with a practice of daily meditation, embodied through painterly gestures on the space of a canvas. The first performance took place during the covid-19 lockdown of 2020 in Basel, Switzerland.

Painting performances are 20-40 minutes in length. The collaboration is entirely improvised and showcases a process of human & robotic co-creation.

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Research

The process was developed using data recorded using an eeg headset, a computer vision system tracking the position of the body to feed into a custom robotic collaborator.

 

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STATES OF FLOW

I recorded my brain waves during experiments in meditation techniques ranging from vipassana (mantra), aural (sound), qi gong and visualisation approaches. By measuring EEG fluctuations across the spectrum of alpha, beta, delta, gamma, theta, the extracted data is converted into kinematic positions resulting in a visual representation of the brain's electrical signals.

By recording my brainwaves daily,  the fluctuations of my brain in different states were recorded as electrical signals, and could be observed. I discovered elevated states of alphawaves during meditation, particularly when I was able to achieve a state of flow. 


BIOLOGY AS ELECTRICAL CURRENT & SIGNAL

In Mutations of Presence (Generation 4), I turned inward, looking for ways to think about my own biology, as electrical current and signal.  It’s part of my interest in exploring the development of relational systems that surprise me, and challenge my own preconceptions of what technology is meant to do, and how.

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BEYOND AUTOMATION

By starting to integrate my biofeedback with the drawing system I'm hoping to create a record of this moment of time in isolation, suspension, looking out into the world at-a-distance. Centering rituals in catastrophe. Adaptation (beyond automation)

READING LIST

Glissant, Edouard. Poetics of Relation. The University of Michigan Press, 1997.

CREDITS

Creative and technical direction & execution
by Sougwen Chung

DRAWING WITH D.O.U.G.
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Mutations of Presence is a continuation of a long-term project exploring human & robotic collaboration. 

EXPLORE PREVIOUS GENERATIONS
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Generation 1: Mimicry
Generation 2: Memory
Generation 3: Multiplicity

Created during Laurenz Haus Residency with the support of the Schaulager Foundation in Basel, Switzerland.

To learn more about the body of work, please visit the Press section.
For booking inquiries, please contact office@scilicet.xyz
For official press images, go here

works by sougwen

GENESIS (2024)what becomes of the human hand?

BODY MACHINE (MERIDIANS) - 2024machines as extensions of living systems

Assembly Lines (2022)a painting performance with a robotic swarm connected to the flow of a city

Mutations of Presence (2021)Exploring spectrality through sequencing bio-feedback to a machine

F.R.A.N. Flora Rearing Agricultural Network (2020)exploring machine and flora as part of a sympoietic, self-supporting networked system with human as gardener.

Exquisite Corpus (2019)a performance installation exploring human, machine, and ecological bodies

Omnia per Omnia (2018)a painting performance with a robotic swarm connected to the flow of a city

Into The Light (2019)an audiovisual AR installation

Artefacts (2019)a human and machine collaborative drawing

Drawing Operations (2018)a human and machine collaborative duet

Drawing Operations (2017)a human & machine drawing collaboration involving memory.

Drawing Operations (2015)a human & robot drawing collaboration involving mimicry

Chiaroscuro (2013)a spatial interplay of light and shadow as an immersive installation

Preparatory Gestures (2017)a series of sculpture studies in VR

Mycelia (2018)a series of sculptures inspired by bio-inspired cognition

Ecdysis (2013)a study in performative architecture

High Tide (Étude Op. 2, No. 4)a painting exploring the dynamics of change

The Limitless, The Absolute (2017)a painting inspired by the 八卦 Trigrams of the IChing

Cardia (2012)a short film depicting a transgression from interior to exterior

Apolysis (2014)a short film in collaboration with Clint Mansell

Untitled (Étude Op. 1, No. 1-4)a series of drawings exploring synesthesia

Chiaro Oscuro Prototypesa series of form studies with paper

Topographies (2015)a series of paintings inspired by nature and flow states

Dénouement (Recurrent fevers of unknown origin)

Sougwen 愫君 Chung is a Chinese-Canadian artist and researcher. Chung is the founder and artistic director of ⇢ SCILICET, a studio exploring human & non-human collaboration.

A former research fellow at MIT’s Media Lab, Sougwen is considered a pioneer in the field of human-machine collaboration – exploring the mark-made-by-hand and the mark-made-by-machine as an approach to understanding the dynamics of humans and systems. 

— Sougwen 愫君 Chung is a Chinese-born, Canadian-raised artist & (re)searcher based in London / New York / Hong Kong.

— Sougwen 愫君 Chung is a Chinese-born, Canadian-raised artist & (re)searcher based in London / New York / Hong Kong.

— Sougwen 愫君 Chung is a Chinese-born, Canadian-raised artist & (re)searcher based in London / New York / Hong Kong.

Copyright Sougwen Chung
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