Presentations, Conference Papers and Abstracts
CONFERENCE OF THE UK SYNAESTHESIA ASSOCIATION
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH MARCH 2008
‘IF THERE IS NO COLOUR, THERE IS NO MEANING - MUSINGS ON THE CONCEPT OF NEUROTYPICAL FROM A SYNAESTHESIC STANDPOINT'
‘How do non-synaesthetes experience the world? Just as non- synaesthetes find it difficult to imagine synaesthesia, synaesthetes find it equally perplexing to imagine how neurotypicals can navigate the world using only one sense at a time. From the experience and extensive study of my own polymodal synaesthesia I am able to track my own development of the acquisition of language and understanding of metaphor, whilst realising that it is a concept that is only understandable if I attempt to put myself in the mind of a non synaesthesic person by means of imagination, or more easily to cross reference via my synaesthesic experiences. Whilst I am aware of having my own synaesthesic concepts prior to the introduction of standard navigational concepts (such as names, nouns and adjectives), I would like to investigate how non synaesthetes experience the world prior to being introduced to these concepts. I would like to examine the following questions ‘Where does experience and concept begin for the non-synaesthesic mind?’ and ‘Could the residual memory of the synaesthesic state in the non synaesthesic or ‘pruned’ neurotypical brain be responsible for the acquisition and understanding of language and metaphor?’
Barbara Ryan 2008
................................................................................
METAMORPHOSIS PRAGUE 2007
HERESY AND ALCHEMY WITHIN THE HOSTILE SPACE OF HOMOGONISED COGNITIVE EXPERIENCE
OR
THE POETICS OF RANDOMISED SENSORY INPUT
Through art and the senses we explore, experience and process the universe. Unlike interactions in science and religion this processing demands no adherence to a pre-structured, pre-quantified or pre-authored belief system. The experience of art is an involvement and fusion with ‘what is’. Although inherently subjective it exists more fully in terms of real-time and sensation
and can alchemically mediate between predetermined outcomes and the fear of hostile space whether internal or external.Once a cognitive process has been tracked and recorded does it disperse the fear of the unknown workings of the mind or does it become a set route from which we fear to deviate? The poetics experienced by randomised sensory imput are fundemental to creativity and understanding. Subjective personal experience leads to a true and individual choice in a society constricted by the boundaries of the spiritually homogenised sensation.
Barbara Ryan 2007
................................................................................
CONFERENCE OF THE UK SYNAESTHESIA ASSOCIATION
NEW COLLEGE OXFORD MARCH 2007
BOOK OF DAYS – A SYNAESTHESIC CALENDER – A WORK IN PROGRESS
I had intended to create a 'book of days' since 1991. Initially I had been inspired by the visual representation of historical, agricultural, meterological and geographic information/scenes of ‘Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc du Berry’ produced by the Limburg Brothers in the 13th century. By 2005 when I commenced the project I had noted how fashion magazines with their emaphasis on the changing seasons in the form of ‘lifestyle’ and fashion and bombardment of ‘change – change – change’ hinging on the turn of the fashion year mirrored the cycles represented by the court artists of the middle ages. One main differnece being that one was set down for eternity and only for the very rich – whilst the other was relatively cheap and intentionally throwaway – a poor mans book of days of continual consumption .Stylistically I want to mesh the two approaches to produce a record of synaesthesic memory.
Starting in the autumn of 2005 I began to record the colours, smells,variations in light, sensations of temperature and events In pictorial form. Initially I toyed with taking a definative photograph for every day of the year – this would record my life for the duration of 365 days. However synaesthsically speaking straight photography could not encompass the sensations and harmonies of my cross modal polysynaesthesic experiences. If I think of a particular day from memory, it consists of a compression of many sensory experiences, both synaesthesic and what I assume is the ‘normal visual and olfactory way’ . For example if I look at the pages for the end of August I experience a filmic sequence of intermeshed stories, scenarios, characters and their accompanying smells, sounds, meterological and tactile and sensations. Rather than one moment of a particular day, it is a representation of the concept of August in synaesthesic memory - of all Augusts – separate,different, yet cohesive and eternal. Sometimes by a certain manifestation of light rays and accompanying olfactory circumstances, a day in October, say, can momentarily replicate a day in May, March or any other month.Thus the passage of the seasons whilst appearing initially circular in form, can also become like a ‘moebius’ strip, transposing unseemingly related places and times.
Barbara Ryan 2007
................................................................................
SLSA EUROPE 'CLOSE ENCOUNTERS' UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM JUNE 2006
speaker:Barbara Ryan (barbararyan@fsmail.net)
Batch 308/309 of the Hotel Europa Archives- a product of Illustrated Speed Chess Batch 308/309 of the Hotel Europa Archives- a product of Illustrated Speed Chess The Hotel Europa Archives are a set of documents that record moments from the 'out takes of history', creating dialogues between individual historical figures, empires, governments and political movements from the 16th to the 20th century. Batch 308/309 of the archives were deliberately created with a malfunctioning Series 2 iMac. Due to the machine's unpredictability, it's actions and responses create as many problems as they do solutions. I have likened this production method to a game of chess as essentially the computer and computer-user have become opponents. The computer presents an action or 'move' as a fait accomplis to which the player must respond quickly and inventively in order to finish production and 'win the game' . I named the process an Illustrated Form of Speed Chess , the 'rules' held to were: Every time the computer malfunctioned a strict time limit of 30 minutes maximum had to be adhered to find and execute a solution. Further to this once 'the game' had started absolutely no materials or technical support could be sourced from outside the studio. Within these parameters the use of 'instinctive processing' mirrors theories of alchemical transmutation, in which seemingly unusable substances can be transformed and validated when viewed and used in the 'correct' way.
Barbara Ryan 2006
HOTEL EUROPA ARCHIVE BOX - BATCH 308 - LIST OF CONTENTS - 9 ITEMS
1. MESSAGER DU BONHEUR AND ORACULUM BAG
2. KNUSPRIGER BROETCHEN PAECKCHEN
3. STICKER SHEET, ANCEL PAPER AND EAGLE ASHTRAY PACKET
4. BLACK AND WHITE STICKER SHEET, CROWN BAG AND FIVE DOTS BAG
5. ANCEL MAP
6. CARTE DE VISITE (no text)
7. PAPER ITEM (WITH REFERENCE NUMBER W12788 102382)
8. MALTOID BIASA - PAGE 37 - MAUVE VLAD
9. TOURNAMENT BAG - CONTAINS PERFUME SAMPLES FOR USE WITH ARCHIVE BATCH 308
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH MARCH 2008
‘IF THERE IS NO COLOUR, THERE IS NO MEANING - MUSINGS ON THE CONCEPT OF NEUROTYPICAL FROM A SYNAESTHESIC STANDPOINT'
‘How do non-synaesthetes experience the world? Just as non- synaesthetes find it difficult to imagine synaesthesia, synaesthetes find it equally perplexing to imagine how neurotypicals can navigate the world using only one sense at a time. From the experience and extensive study of my own polymodal synaesthesia I am able to track my own development of the acquisition of language and understanding of metaphor, whilst realising that it is a concept that is only understandable if I attempt to put myself in the mind of a non synaesthesic person by means of imagination, or more easily to cross reference via my synaesthesic experiences. Whilst I am aware of having my own synaesthesic concepts prior to the introduction of standard navigational concepts (such as names, nouns and adjectives), I would like to investigate how non synaesthetes experience the world prior to being introduced to these concepts. I would like to examine the following questions ‘Where does experience and concept begin for the non-synaesthesic mind?’ and ‘Could the residual memory of the synaesthesic state in the non synaesthesic or ‘pruned’ neurotypical brain be responsible for the acquisition and understanding of language and metaphor?’
Barbara Ryan 2008
................................................................................
METAMORPHOSIS PRAGUE 2007
HERESY AND ALCHEMY WITHIN THE HOSTILE SPACE OF HOMOGONISED COGNITIVE EXPERIENCE
OR
THE POETICS OF RANDOMISED SENSORY INPUT
Through art and the senses we explore, experience and process the universe. Unlike interactions in science and religion this processing demands no adherence to a pre-structured, pre-quantified or pre-authored belief system. The experience of art is an involvement and fusion with ‘what is’. Although inherently subjective it exists more fully in terms of real-time and sensation
and can alchemically mediate between predetermined outcomes and the fear of hostile space whether internal or external.Once a cognitive process has been tracked and recorded does it disperse the fear of the unknown workings of the mind or does it become a set route from which we fear to deviate? The poetics experienced by randomised sensory imput are fundemental to creativity and understanding. Subjective personal experience leads to a true and individual choice in a society constricted by the boundaries of the spiritually homogenised sensation.
Barbara Ryan 2007
................................................................................
CONFERENCE OF THE UK SYNAESTHESIA ASSOCIATION
NEW COLLEGE OXFORD MARCH 2007
BOOK OF DAYS – A SYNAESTHESIC CALENDER – A WORK IN PROGRESS
I had intended to create a 'book of days' since 1991. Initially I had been inspired by the visual representation of historical, agricultural, meterological and geographic information/scenes of ‘Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc du Berry’ produced by the Limburg Brothers in the 13th century. By 2005 when I commenced the project I had noted how fashion magazines with their emaphasis on the changing seasons in the form of ‘lifestyle’ and fashion and bombardment of ‘change – change – change’ hinging on the turn of the fashion year mirrored the cycles represented by the court artists of the middle ages. One main differnece being that one was set down for eternity and only for the very rich – whilst the other was relatively cheap and intentionally throwaway – a poor mans book of days of continual consumption .Stylistically I want to mesh the two approaches to produce a record of synaesthesic memory.
Starting in the autumn of 2005 I began to record the colours, smells,variations in light, sensations of temperature and events In pictorial form. Initially I toyed with taking a definative photograph for every day of the year – this would record my life for the duration of 365 days. However synaesthsically speaking straight photography could not encompass the sensations and harmonies of my cross modal polysynaesthesic experiences. If I think of a particular day from memory, it consists of a compression of many sensory experiences, both synaesthesic and what I assume is the ‘normal visual and olfactory way’ . For example if I look at the pages for the end of August I experience a filmic sequence of intermeshed stories, scenarios, characters and their accompanying smells, sounds, meterological and tactile and sensations. Rather than one moment of a particular day, it is a representation of the concept of August in synaesthesic memory - of all Augusts – separate,different, yet cohesive and eternal. Sometimes by a certain manifestation of light rays and accompanying olfactory circumstances, a day in October, say, can momentarily replicate a day in May, March or any other month.Thus the passage of the seasons whilst appearing initially circular in form, can also become like a ‘moebius’ strip, transposing unseemingly related places and times.
Barbara Ryan 2007
................................................................................
SLSA EUROPE 'CLOSE ENCOUNTERS' UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM JUNE 2006
speaker:Barbara Ryan (barbararyan@fsmail.net)
Batch 308/309 of the Hotel Europa Archives- a product of Illustrated Speed Chess Batch 308/309 of the Hotel Europa Archives- a product of Illustrated Speed Chess The Hotel Europa Archives are a set of documents that record moments from the 'out takes of history', creating dialogues between individual historical figures, empires, governments and political movements from the 16th to the 20th century. Batch 308/309 of the archives were deliberately created with a malfunctioning Series 2 iMac. Due to the machine's unpredictability, it's actions and responses create as many problems as they do solutions. I have likened this production method to a game of chess as essentially the computer and computer-user have become opponents. The computer presents an action or 'move' as a fait accomplis to which the player must respond quickly and inventively in order to finish production and 'win the game' . I named the process an Illustrated Form of Speed Chess , the 'rules' held to were: Every time the computer malfunctioned a strict time limit of 30 minutes maximum had to be adhered to find and execute a solution. Further to this once 'the game' had started absolutely no materials or technical support could be sourced from outside the studio. Within these parameters the use of 'instinctive processing' mirrors theories of alchemical transmutation, in which seemingly unusable substances can be transformed and validated when viewed and used in the 'correct' way.
Barbara Ryan 2006
HOTEL EUROPA ARCHIVE BOX - BATCH 308 - LIST OF CONTENTS - 9 ITEMS
1. MESSAGER DU BONHEUR AND ORACULUM BAG
2. KNUSPRIGER BROETCHEN PAECKCHEN
3. STICKER SHEET, ANCEL PAPER AND EAGLE ASHTRAY PACKET
4. BLACK AND WHITE STICKER SHEET, CROWN BAG AND FIVE DOTS BAG
5. ANCEL MAP
6. CARTE DE VISITE (no text)
7. PAPER ITEM (WITH REFERENCE NUMBER W12788 102382)
8. MALTOID BIASA - PAGE 37 - MAUVE VLAD
9. TOURNAMENT BAG - CONTAINS PERFUME SAMPLES FOR USE WITH ARCHIVE BATCH 308
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