H.E.A.D.

Inspired by the the H.E.A.D. Revolution - Hedonic Engineering And Development - The installation uses a closed feedback system of human brainwaves, measured using an EEG, and it’s visual perception input fed by a never ending stream of images collected by a synthetic intelligence mapping. The sounds the performer perceives as well as the images he views thru the VR-Glasses influence his brainwaves, which again produce the given images showed on the screen.

Over the course of evolution, the human ego has developed and grown to allow us to survive within the impersonal environments of unrelenting Nature. Once a useful and necessary tool by which we could separate ourselves from the herd around us, this irrational concept now threatens to destroy humanity.

It creates a sense of Self. It allows us to say “this is me”, and in today’s culture, extends so far as to include “this is what I believe… This is what I expect… This is what I demand”. Our very identity as human beings, belonging to a race of biologically-similar creatures, hinges upon the premise, and rests squarely within the bounds of what we - as a democratic collective - have decided constitutes a person, or a single individual in our modern world. We are all equal, but only because we have an ego structure which screams to be heard and recognised.

It is a liar; for some, it inflates their sense of self beyond reason and to the contempt of others. For the rest, it lies again and limits their true ability with false ideas of inferiority and ineptitude. Rarely do we ever find a person whose true, inner self is mirrored precisely and accurately by their own perception of their abilities, limitations, or entitlements.

It is a conceptual trap, long-outlived its purpose as an evolutionary tool, with the advent of civilisation and agriculture. Rather than provide us with a survival instinct, it now simply acts as the proxy mannequin by which we measure our civil rights, and our collective entitlements.

Without an ego structure as we know it, we would not need empathy, for we would share each other’s’ pain; we would not need compassion, for helping others is, in fact, the same as helping ourselves. There would be no thought of reward for good deeds, for the deed along would be payment enough, in seeing others well, and happy. This cannot come to be, so long as our egos insist that we are separate creatures and independent in thought, and existence; separate from each other, separate from our planet, separate from the universe, and separate from god, however it is chosen to be defined.

To let oneself go - or, perhaps, the sense of oneself - requires great achievement, great discipline and willingness in order to leave the dualistic world of self vs. other behind. Freed from this limitation, we will be able to regard dualisms as the fantasy of sub-Abyssal existence, and step effortlessly across the Abyss anytime we please, recognising immediately that we are no longer owned, manipulated or subservient to our mundane, human egos.