JETLAG
May 16 – June 13, 2009
Jetlag – a multimedia installation
Jetlag uses the metaphors of the brain and the airplane travel experience to engage us in a discussion about the disconnection and alienation experienced by many in our society, despite easier and greater access to places and people, facilitated by technology including computers, internet, and airplanes. Jetlag provides a comment on this increased freedom in communication and access, both geographical and virtual. It also addresses the limitations experienced by individuals involved in these processes: confinement in airplanes versus the experience of unlimited skies; confinement behind a computer desk versus the ability to connect (at a distance) with many.
Never before have human being been connected in so many different ways to each other, and in such a multitude of quick and efficient ways. We “twitter”, we connect on Facebook, MySpace, Friend Feed and many more, we send emails and text messages, we converse on the phone, we engage in virtual experiences (Second Life) or meet for a quick chat at a café. Often we do all of the above simultaneously. But do we still take the time to cook together and eat together, to spend Sundays with family or develop the kind of relationships that last a lifetime?
Ultimately, Jetlag wants to explore and contrast with each other the ideas of Apollonian and Faustian approaches in Western culture. The term Apollonian (which comes from the Greek myth of Apollo) is applicable to cultures characterized by harmony and balance, and has the circle for its symbol. The term Faustian on the other hand is characterized by the straight line and stands for cultures that are always moving ahead in progress, faster, and more efficient. The question remains: what is the price of progress and how do we integrate it in our lives without compromising on depth, quality and harmony?
Jetlag is a multi-media project that investigates social and biological networks. It includes sculptures, digital photography, sound and video by the MEI.collectiv, as well as pictures, videos, and sounds emailed or transferred by File Transfer Protocol (FTP) by friends and family from around the world.
Jetlag is a project by the MEI.collectiv and was produced by Jorge Bachman, Sabine Gysens, and Jessica Resmond. Jessica Resmond is an artist from Bordeaux, France, who received her BFA in sculpture from California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Jorge Bachmann is a Swiss Columbian multi-disciplinary artist. His work has been shown internationally in Switzerland, Columbia and the US. Sabine Gysens is neuropsychologist from Belgium with a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Paris-VII, France. She is also an art curator and likes to explore the interface between art and science.
The Human Brain
The nervous system is a wonderfully complex and beautiful system. Interconnecting networks in the brain perform information processing on multiple levels, involving serial and parallel, hierarchical and simultaneous, localized and far-reaching processes. It is the source of all communication, verbal and non-verbal, factual and emotional. It is where imagination and creativity live. Neural pathways connect different areas with each other through a complex network of axons and dendrites. The human brain is composed of three parts of which the cerebral hemispheres are the most visible and pertinent to skills that set humans apart from animals (e.g. thinking). The two hemispheres are almost identical in looks but not in function, and consist of the frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital lobes, each of which have their own specialties. The hemispheres are connected to each other by a mass of white matter called the corpus callosum, which conveys information from one hemisphere to the other.
Experiments on split-brain patients (in which the corpus callosum connection has been severed) have suggested that the hemispheres have asymmetrical functions and a different “cognitive style”. Simply put, the right hemisphere tends to be responsible for spatial, tactile and constructional tasks, and its style is characterized as holistic and intuitive. The left hemisphere is considered more logical, analytical and verbal. Most likely, both hemispheres usually function in a fully integrated way and/or may be used alternately depending on the type of information processing and cognitive style chosen by the individual thinker.
During evolution, humans have perfected skills that make them uniquely human (e.g. walking upright, speech, music). They have done so through a system of selection and elimination as well as the reinforcement through repetitious use of certain neural pathways in the brain. Efficiency and proficiency are improved by increased exposure and use of the pathways in the brain responsible for the skills concerned. The ideas of repetition and pacing to develop and improve skill are also important in rehabilitation of functioning after injury to the brain, and constitute a good metaphor in any discussion about human communication. The model of the brain and its interconnections has become a representational model for many areas that involve complex and multiple, integrated relationships such as computer technology, and social networking.
Netlag and the Effect of Internet Use
The model of the brain and the idea of human intelligence are commonly used in artificial intelligence research and the development of computer technology. Today, computer technology and by extension the use of internet and email are an integral part of society and interpersonal relationships in the Western World and increasingly in the rest of the world.
One of the great debates about internet use, especially the use of social networking sites, concerns itself with the question of its impact on interpersonal relationships. Does it expand relationships – socially and geographically? Or does it alienate people from richer and more authentic relations? Internet use has become routinely integrated into the ways people communicate: by phone, by email or other internet use, or in-person. How does this transform communities? The traditional orientation towards family and neighborhood-based groups of social interaction is rapidly shifting towards geographically more dispersed networks. The pace of living in our “modern society” and the inability to spend the time “truly connecting” through whatever means, has left many with a feeling of alienation and disconnection – from others but also from themselves.
Like in the brain, the strength of an interpersonal bond (neural pathway) intensifies through the repeated use of a connection. One could argue that humans have many connections to many individuals, some frequently used, other less so, resulting in different levels of intensity in communication and “friendship”. The question remains whether the internet has resulted in an increase in quantity at the expense of quality of relationships. Netlag refers to the physical side-effects of being online for an extended period of time. It resembles jetlag but can also entail eye and muscle strain.
Jetlag and the Airplane Travel Experience
Airplane travel often involves traveling across different time zones, to far away geographical locations, and in an amount of time that does not typically allow for an easy and pain free adjustment to changes in circadian rhythms (biological clock). This often results in psychological and physiological symptoms for the traveler, that are summarized under the term “jetlag” or desynchronosis: fatigue, temporary insomnia, irritability, impaired concentration, disruption of bodily functions. It may take at least several days for travelers to fully reorient themselves and adjust to the new time zone in which they find themselves, “to become synchronized again”. Jetlag is thought to be caused by two groups of cells at the base of the brain falling out of synch. Changing time zones throws off the body’s sense of timing due to changes to our exposure to light and subsequent interpretations by brain cells that regulate REM and non-REM sleep.
In addition, cultural differences at the place of destination may add to the experiences of disorientation. Jetlag also refers to a disconnection with the world and with reality, experienced through a change in space and time relationships to it.
Credits
Family, friends, friend of friends and acquaintances from around the world Including (in alphabetical order): Eduardo Arias, Alejandro Bachmann, Pedro Bachmann, Anne-Laure Behagel, Gabriela Bejan, Anne Bishop, Tom Bishop, Stéphane Blanchard, Nicola Bonstein, Anne Chao, Magali Charmot, Pierre Chatel, Walter Cruzate, Carla Dal Mas, Laurence Danthony, Frank Dreher, Jonny Farrow, Mabel Floreza, Maxime Ganuzeau, Aimee Goggins, Hou Hanru, Urs Helfenstein, Nicola Hind, Evelyne Jouanno, Eleanor Kent, Arie Knoops, Corentin Laval, Daniel Leu, Michael Litton, Marylene Lichtenstern, Shasha Liu, Camille Maret-Yvon, Wilma Mason, Alex Medawar, Paule Merlin, Mami & Luc Meier Honda, Camilo Montilla, Mark Morgan, Salvatore Nastasi, Hanif O'Neil, Jon Phillips, Caterina Prochillo, Evan Ratliff, Amanda Resmond, Yoann Resmond, Ismail Robbana, Max Sarrazin, Jackie Schaeffer, SF Chocolate Factory, Flora Skivington, Stephan Smulovitz, Alan So, Tomás Uribe, David Zarek
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ3401XVYww&feature=related by sinankosak
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57MhDlrgCrU&feature=related by cryotwin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CORl6Bf9Yzw by ourovinteeum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-52nmsVxIm8 by odakatoshio
MEI.collectivwww.meicollectiv.com
MEI.collectiv was founded by Jorge Bachman, Anne Chao, and Jessica Resmond.
Current participants in MEI.collectiv’s project Jetlag include Jorge Bachman, Sabine Gysens and Jessica Resmond.
Mina Dresden Gallery
312 Valencia Street @ 14th San Francisco, CA 94103www.minadresden.com