Susan Hiller.

Title

The provisional texture of reality : selected talks and texts, 1977-2007

Author

Hiller, Susan.  

Publisher:

JRP/Ringier ;

Pub date:

c2008.

Pages:

255 p. :

ISBN:

9783905829563

extract:

1. - reverie, dreams, trance, hallucinations, spirituality, altered states of consciousness, psychological borderlands.
2. - fluctuating cycle of attention
3. - experiences of the unstable zones, where the visual merges with the visionary.
4. - mapping a terrain
5. - takes an ironic, even cynical approach, to the whole realm of the irrational and uncanny; they can be very funny as well as enlightening.
6. - exploring dreams, hallucinations, visions and how different psychological tunings produce different scales of consciousness and unconsiousness 
7. - conscious pragmatic activity and unconscious dreamlike activity
8. - investigate psychological borderlands where areas of unconsciousness intersect with what we think of as ordinary.
9. - People are interested in states of mind that can be enhanced through music and certain kinds of stimulants and through meditation.
10. - propose the possibility of shifting the viewer's consciousness through visual means to induce revelation, sudden multi-level insights...
11. - ...excluded works that exoticise and freeze 'the unconscious', like the paintings by some surrealists, which represent dream imagery as a static rebus decipherable by experts...
12. - our human brain is already an immensely complex chemical system demonstrating a more-or-less direct relationship between states of mind and particular balances/imbalances.'
13. - Psychoactive drugs alter the brain 'normal' effects by changing the speeds of intensities by which it already operates...'
14. '...they actually add no new ingredients to its chemical mix...'
15. '....how artist communicate an awareness perpetually relegated to the margins of social thoughts because it signals an epistemological upheaval - illusion or delusion...'

The Mental disorder...

A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological pattern, potentially reflected in behavior, that is generally associated with distress or disability, and which is not considered part of normal development of a person's culture. Mental disorders are generally defined by a combination of how a person feels, acts, thinks or perceives. This may be associated with particular regions or functions of the brain or rest of the nervous system, often in a social context. The recognition and understanding of mental health conditions have changed over time and across cultures and there are still variations in definition, assessment and classification, although standard guideline criteria are widely used. In many cases, there appears to be a continuum between mental health and mental illness, making diagnosis complex.^[1] According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), over a third of people in most countries report problems at some time in their life which meet criteria for diagnosis of one or more of the common types of mental disorder.^[2]

The causes of mental disorders are varied and in some cases unclear, and theories may incorporate findings from a range of fields.Services are based in psychiatric hospitals or in the community, and assessments are carried out by psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and clinical social workers, using various methods but often relying on observation and questioning. Clinical treatments are provided by various mental health professionals. Psychotherapy and psychiatric medication are two major treatment options, as are social interventions, peer support and self-help. In a minority of cases there might be involuntary detention or involuntary treatment, where legislation allows. Stigma and discrimination can add to the suffering and disability associated with mental disorders (or with being diagnosed or judged as having a mental disorder), leading to various social movements attempting to increase understanding and challenge social exclusion. Prevention is now appearing in some mental health strategies.

source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_disorder

the unsound mind...

WORKING TITLE: 

Altered states of consciousness of the unsound mind.

WHAT? 

ʻAltered states of consciousness of the unsound mindʼ is an exploration; an inquiry, and experimentation of the possibility to step beyond the threshold of the sound and the unsound mind. To explore the possibilities of recreating the illusion that is present in an alternative vision.

WHY?

 The motivation behind this topic started with a growing desire to understand what it means to view physically what the unsound mind projects. To bridge the possibility of the conscious and the unconscious while blurring the line between the real and the surreal. Most people who are deemed unsound are often criticized and isolated in the eye of the public. They can be incapable of controlling themselves, and are vulnerable to the negativity of this harsh world. To what end can the relationship between the sound and unsound minds arrive at a coherent visual understanding.

Altered States Of Conciousness

Altered States Of Consciousness of the unsound mind - I am interested to explore this topic because of personal experiences that I encountered. It happened quite recently that my father was not being himself, he experienced random episodes that neither of our family could explain. He would sometimes talk to himself, call out a random person's name that we are unfamiliar with, he would be violent occasionally and he would lose his way even at home. Age was not a huge factor that contributed to this and his health was undetermined to be the likely cause as said by the doctor. The doctor's could not come up with a valid conclusion to his random episode.

Prior to this, a year ago, my Grandmother was critically Ill and during her last few days she experienced hallucinations that at times frightens the very bit of us. She would hallucinate people jumping off a building from her window, children with big red eyes staring at her, insects crawling from her clothing. Sometimes it can be heart warming, or humorous at the same time, she would hallucinate beautiful little children surround her all clad in white, sometimes she would say her late husband would visit her and one which I find it humorous is when she complaint the back of a cow was swaying left and right infront of her face flicking its tail.

As i go through this process, I did a slight research on the unsound mind and there were a few health conditions that paralleled to both my father's and Grandmother's state though both differs greatly. During that period of time, possibly because of the interaction with my dad when he had his episodes, I started to question - which i believe many had asked before - what is it that they see that we dont? what is it that they hear? How do they feel being in that state? Do they know that they are in that current state or they not?.

I have yet to answer them...or can I?

Altered States Of Consciousness of the unsound mind