Presentation for Review 3

Review#3 Presentation
Kumkum wanted me to present the process so far in tems of research, analysis, ideas, concepts etc.
After this Review, a lot of things in my project changed-the intent had to be redefined because i had opened up the phenomenon of the placebo effect and touched upon much larger concepts. (check presentation for the larger concepts). I had also stumbled upon a form, not he final one, but this form helped broaden the topic at first, and helped me narrow down to a focus.
After feedback from my panel, I had to narrow down the focus to 'Self' and open up the premise of belief because that would add some meat to my narrative and accordingly redefine the intent. So a lot of simultaneous work has been happening for the past two weeks.
I think I have arrived at a more fixed focus (Self) and made the connection to Belief.
I had spoken to Mr. Ravindra and he helped me structure and pin down my focus.

Also, in terms of the form I have been doing some Explorations and getting back in touch with Processing. I made the Delay happen and also a few other fun things. (will put them up soon)

Seeing yourself Seeing

Redefining Intent

Aim of the project: To reason Why you believe what you believe?

Addressing questions like:


What is a belief?
Belief is a state of mind where an individual holds a proposition to be true.

What is the importance of belief?
What you are right now is direct result of what your beliefs are. Belief is a cognitive faculty that helps us function in life by directing your thoughts, actions and your behavior.

Why beliefs are formed?

Beliefs are among the most primitive and central of mental constructs, and yet there is little agreement as to what they are or how they should be construed. They are basic to our understanding of a wide range of central phenomena in modern psychology. 
For example our beliefs are key components of our personalities and senses of identity, and our expressions of beliefs often define us to others. Many of our reactions to others are based on our beliefs and our perceptions of theirs, and it is impossible to understand racism, prejudice, religious and national conflicts without considering disagreement in basic belief systems. We join many groups because we believe the group will support our beliefs, and our participation in groups changes many of our beliefs. 
We seek psychotherapy in our effort to change our beliefs about self and the things we hold dear. Our political and religious beliefs are central to many of us. 
Many of our behaviors, mundane and consequential, are affected by what we believe. And on it goes.

Overarching question: Why you believe what you believe?

What am I saying through my Project?
Through the simple act of breaking beliefs, I am provoking the viewer to question why beliefs should be subject to reasoning and open to correction so as to evaluate one's actions, thoughts and behavior. (so to question one's thoughts and actions in society/life.)

Bigger Questions:

1) How important is it to know your "true-self"?
2) What am I Going to gain by knowing the "true self"?


Experience:
Do you know yourself or do you believe that you know yourself?

Taking two beliefs: 1) You believe in yourself.
                                2) You believe in what you see.


(check ideas for installation in the slideshow)

Sketches after redefining intent

Sketches

Visuals/space/sketches/interactions

Initial sketches - form?

(The metaphor of mirror)

Do we need placebos to live?

They are the feel goods in our life

Human response in attaining well being – Making a person believe in deception and almost following the deception for one’s own well-being.

Appearances are often deceptive, but something needs to happen where one starts believing in the deceived towards positivity/well-being.

A mirror as a metaphor to separate you and him (inner you) because while studying the phenomenon of a placebo, one thing got confirmed that it is You who heals yourself. And all you need is that external stimulus (sugar pill in which you believe) to start the action of healing yourself

Ideas for installation

13^th August

Key words derived from the phenomenon: Broader Concepts: idea of perception, action reaction, belief, human response to (Inert) stimuli, appearances, measured and controlled deception, illusion, positive effect

Attributes of a mirror = illusion, perception, action reaction, the idea of what you see is what you believe, response to stimulus, conditioning, controlled measured deception, separate ‘You’ from ‘you’, appearance,

15^th August

Idea of action reaction – How does this fit into the framework of a placebo?

Case1-Parallel1: The idea that you are given a pill (action) and you expect the healing to happen (reaction) – placebo is the pill because you believe the pill will heal you. (Mind play because both the action and reaction is happening from the same mind)

In case 1, the pill is a medium (stimulus) for a placebo to happen whereas, in case 2, the mirror is a medium (stimulus) for a placebo to happen.

Case 2-Parallel2: The idea of action-reaction through a mirror

You look in the mirror.

You see yourself.

You do an action.

The mirror does the same thing (instant reaction). Mind is conditioned to get an instant reaction.

There is a delay of 10 sec in the reaction.

There is an immediate separation of you and him.

Now you perform an action.

The mirror performs it for you, but 10 sec later.

Your actions are in your control but yet you wait for a response. This action itself means that ‘he’ is separated from ‘you’.

The situation is such where ‘he’ is following your actions. The response follows your actions.

Through something, through color? Touch? Interaction with yourself, can “you” follow he instead…?

Why the separation of “me” and “him”?

Placebo effect is a psychological effect. The body is looking for an effect to take place. After the intake of the sugar pill, the body believes that that the sugar pill is healing it. So the healing happens, just that it is the body that heals itself, not the sugar pill.

The process of healing itself – to translate this process into a space, the illusion that ‘you’ are separate from ‘me’. It is a self-generated process, which means the action and the reaction, are both generated in the body itself. And the body is actually healing itself sub-consciously.

Now in order to think in terms of a space the first idea was to separate the subconscious and the conscious i.e ‘he’ and ‘me’ respectively. Start a dialogue between ‘he’ and ‘me’.

17^{th August}

As Triveni said, “understanding the cause and effect equation”

Bringing about a receptive state of mind.

Ways of going ahead..getting unstuck.

--WATCH--ASK
---------TRY

Certain unanswered questions - kind of sorted.

After talking to people i inferred that there are essentially Three conditions for a placebo to happen:

1. Expectancy effect

2. Classical conditioning

3. Motivation

Interpretations of a placebo

“Perceiving a reality but questioning that reality, whether it is real or pretentious” - Nupur

“Placebo – something not real, pretends to be something and poses itself to be real…End result – a placebo takes place.” – Mr. Ravindra

3 questions to be addressed, which will eventually give, rise to the form:

1) Placebo addressing what? – Stress related problems and people (defining the audience/context)

What’s ironic about a placebo is that, it is something not real, but makes people believe it is real. And this effect is one of the most exploited in therapy.

2) The Form is going to be the link that makes the placebo happen

Using art in therapy as a resource – may understand how art therapy (color, image, construction of an image, as an experience) is used in a more scientific way to understand how imagery can trigger off my own form, which is going attempt a placebo.

My placebo is going to address stress.

So, according to the three conditions mentioned above, I need to create a condition (stress related) where the need to address it will arise, creating a condition for a placebo to take place.

How is the problem of stress addressed in art therapy?

What is that a person is made to talk, draw, think, act?

How is the person made to express his/her stress?

3) What does the form do?

Help me use my learning and constraints in an efficient manner to meet the goal of creating a placebo.

Make people believe their stress is gone by creating an illusion.

The big question: Why am I doing this? Using my learning of art, design, space, and electronics in a very therapeutic approach to create an installation on placebo?

My constraints:

Color

Image/constructed image

Light

Touch (may be)

Premise: Art in therapy

1. What is art in therapy?

2. How is it used?

3. How can color be used to tap into the subconscious. Application?

4. How is stress handled in art therapy?

5. What are the ways /devices to express stress in art therapy?

6. When and how use of / need to construct of image in order to express one’s feeling?

7. Do patients construct the images?

8. The therapist who shows pictures to understand their state of mind? Either way,

9. How can Color be used to control mood/build up to expect an emotion? (climax music?)

10. How/in what ways a patient’s state of being is identified?

11. While practicing art in therapy– looking at color, image construction.

12. What are the ways in which color be used as stress management/relief?