Re: brain responses to cultural emissions (was Re: [-empyre-] syntax of wetness)

[antoanetta ivanova <antoanetta@start.com.au>]

Hi Wendy,

in relation to brain power /waves/... alpha and beta 
states and their application in/for 3d VRML, etc
you may wish to check out 

brainscore.org

slovenian artist - Davide Grassi - developed this 3D 
interactive game, in which the players are represented 
in the 3d space by avatars, whose actions are
determined by a bio-feedback technology and eye 
movement tracking system.

( to but it rather brutally simply)

check out the site. you may find it insiteful for some 
further thought on the cultural context you wrote about


nova best

/

Antoanetta



Original message from: "wendy joy" <w-joy@zip.com.au>
>
>I wonder what is going on structurally in the brain in 
these immersive
>states that have been discussed here - I guess it's 
the surge of
>beta-endorphins and enkephalins and the low alpha 
waves.  I guess there have
>been studies of brain activity and responses to 3d art 
- can someone
>enlighten me?
>
>I smiled when i read john's paragraph
>
>>  in Ultima i felt intense anxiety when
>>my character was in tough situations, incredible 
adrenaline rushes in
>>combat, and great depression when my character died. 
i mean, i *really"
>>felt it. this is immersion to me, regardless what is 
presented to my
>>eyes.
>
>I used to feel this with pinball machine - actually 
any kind of game.  Is
>play a mimetic rehearsal for real time situations?  Is 
play pleasure for
>it's own sake?  Do salmon love swimming upstream?  
Does a bear shit in the
>woods!  :)
>
>Just yesterday i was leafing through a magazine and 
saw a picture of a
>theatrette full of immaculately equipped GIs cheering 
at the screen as they
>watched afgani targets being destroyed.  The Great 
Game John!  Too right!
>
>it's interesting how these responses are harnessed for 
both leisure and
>lethal destruction.
>
>don't get me wrong - i'm not promoting a causal link 
between killing sims &
>real time violence.
>
>It's interesting how there is a knee jerk reaction 
demonising the perceived
>"misuse" of these responses as "addictive" or socially 
destructive when they
>are merely "adaptive".
>
>Garden Grove CA has a moritorium on internet cafes - 
cos the kiddies were
>killing each other.   talk about shooting the 
medium/messenger :)
>
>hmm banning public internet spaces - now that's a good 
strategy to
>put an x box in every home. hehe :)
>
>Now that Bush the second has made his 'little list' of 
nuclear objectives
>and
>america is the Sparta of the modern age - it's an 
interesting time to be
>harnessing the convincing brain
>states produced by 3d simulations and feeling the 
"real' effects of war -
>the sorrow,
>the mass deaths and the displacement (so eloquently 
portrayed in Beyond
>Manzanar - good on you Tamiko!).
>
>or like John's work - the cold blooded ambivalence of 
the chunky graphics -
>what horror WHAT HORROR I feel over *that* cold 
blooded ambivalence and
>indifference and depersonalisation of human suffering 
that it implies.
>
>that's the immersion I feel - horror and tears!  Tears 
over the japanese
>internees and their modern day afghan counterparts 
stateless in the
>Australian desert - and there arises the anxiety -  
and under those bombs
>and behind that barbed wire there but for the grace of 
god go we.
>
>cheers wendy
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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