About

Welcome to my senior capstone blog where I will document processes of my 10 week effort on a final art piece within my undergraduate study of Emergent Digital Practices.

1/10/17 // Reflections on "Art that matters"

Critical engineering manifesto collectively states to push boundaries of creativity and logic and once those boundaries are passed to go even further. In order to accomplish such an artistic feat, one must spend time studying the intricate, intimate relations between human and technology in both historical and present day contexts. In this day and age digital art has increasingly become more of a tool exploited for advertising and marketing rather than developing into a tool of dramatic inspiration and revolution across every field of study. It is understandable that many artists exercise their creativity for commercial purposes for personal finance and convenience. There does not seem to be as much of a demand from businesses for artists to create more meaningful work that makes a difference. Even then there may lay a fine line between the worth of creating this purposeful work still for commercial use. Even so, another question is brought up regarding making a statement with art that actually matters: Would people actually care? Obviously it is in the nature of the artist to want to manifest “something” within those who observe or participate in their artwork. However, if the world is stuck in an era of lies, bullshit, and ignorant bliss then one does wonder the full affect activist art takes on its beholder. Thankfully for creatives, artistic activism has been proven to inspire change by provoking that emotional “something”. As stated in the article “Can Art Save Us from Bullshit?”, artists inspire change by “performing a lie to get at the truth, revealing the lie which masquerades as a truth, or demonstrating a more profound truth” (Duncombe, Harrebye).  Simple or large, the influential potential held by artwork has and will continue to inspire revolution.  It becomes necessary for artists to fully understand the social and political environment in which they are creating.  Whether art can fully invoke change or not, at the very least a conversation addressing corruption will begin that journey towards change. People are defined by their experiences. Experience is what shapes desires, interests, core beliefs and morals. I believe this kind of activist or interventional work carries this exact experiential nature; strong enough to set a real and permanent change greater than momentary inspiration.  This is the threshold where art becomes more than gallery work, commercial commissions, etc. 

I definitely believe that there is no better time for activist art than the present. There is no better time than now to start sparking conversation about things that matter to us individually or to the greater population. There is no better way to make our voices heard than to EXPERIENCE new ideas, cultures, worries, pain, fear, happiness, union, religion or whatever it may be than through innovative art. Thus the research done on societal norms and how to most effectively instill change among people must be kept at highest quantity and quality. Breaking the tie that unfortunately is holding artists to routine commercial design becomes necessary. When an imaginative mind can redefine popular culture as we know it, an incredible acheivement has occurred.   

1/10/17 // Ideas that matter

5 Short Art/ Design Ideas that make a difference and interrupt social behavior to promote positive change:

1. If random "digital plants" made out of recycled materials and LEDs were to be installed around the city in order to analyse the air quality of that specific area throughout the day and glow red to green depending on collected data, people would feel more motivated to keep every plant growing green. This would encourage others to make more conscious decisions regarding air pollution(i.e. carbon footprinting).
2.  Installing projectors in different neighborhoods or, on a large-scale, in cities around the world that would be turned on in times of need or struggle to display live social media feeds of positive, encouraging words from users around the world would help augment a feeling of unity as humans.
3. An application that would help the deaf "see" music by closely studying synesthesia and instead of playing music outloud, turns music into visual dancing lights, shapes, colors and vibrations would be set for sale on all app stores. Proceeds and donations would go to non-profits that help set up deaf people with hearing aids. 
4. Installing small programmable screens (by those with an app) around the city in random alleys, streets, bathrooms, etc for people to send anonymous POSITIVE messages to those around them will decrease the amount of graffiti and crude art while still getting across encouraging vibes to passersby.
5. If solar powered lights, for example, were to be installed on city trashcans and recycle that glow or perform some sort of whimsical interaction as they were filled, then more people would feel obligated to dispose of waste properly. Vise versa, if hundreds of insanely designed cans, whether it be colorful or carry satirical designs, were to be placed randomly throughout a city in need of waste control, then a message would be sent to encourage better trash management. 

1/10/17 // Project proposal

"The human brain is today the dominant control force on our planet; what moves and directs the brain of man will, in turn, largely determine the future… The human value factor, defined in this way and viewed objectively in terms of brain states that govern acts, thoughts, and decisions, may be seen to occupy a central position of strategic regulative influence in the total biospheric chain of command…

There exists within the cranium a whole world of diverse causal forces; what is more, there are forces within forces within forces, as in no other cubic half-foot of universe that we know"

~Roger Sperry, Neuropsychologist

What does it mean to be a conscience, thinking vessel capable of making decisions that alter the state of our planet politically, environmentally, wholesomely? Rarely do we think of ourselves as a product of the chemical reactions and complex biological systems we are made of. When we address ourselves in first person we are not directly referring to the "local aggregates of some sixty or more types of sub-nuclear particles interacting with great energy, all within the neutrons and protons of their respective atomic nuclei". We function as humans day to day without truly understanding our purely scientific inner workings, and still thrive. Understanding the scientific physical systems of our brain and body does not (and I believe cannot) help us discover and define ourselves as unique sentient beings. Instead those trillions upon gazillions of chemical reactions happening within our minds assign symbols taken from our environment to shape emotions, feelings, thoughts, morals, etc that shape our individual character. Thus truly at the end of the day, from the words of Douglas Hofstadter, esteemed Cognitive Science Professor, "we, the self-perceiving, self-inventing, locked-in mirages are nothing but little miracles of self-reference". Therefore, what we call "I", our conscience, is simply another "symbol" for how we perceive ourselves built upon idiosyncratic life experience. Now if we take these chemically assigned "symbols" into perspective when delving into a conversation about how humans' minds take part in governing this planet, what can be said about the origin of such global corruption. While there are many debates, studies, articles focused around these mind blowing topics, perhaps our personal fantastic ability to perceive or invent life and reality around us has misconstrued the responsibility we must uphold for our planet. Perhaps the symbols we subconsciously develop only seem like perfectly validated reasoning based on commonly accepted assumptions, but lead to fallacy in time (humans as a walking paradox). After all the phrase "the world doesn't revolve around you (or I)" does exist. 

In my own artistic rendition of this paradoxical disastrous beauty of self-reference, I will strive to create a symbolic visual representation of the fragile systems that take place within our mind in correlation to the systems we alter within our defining environment. Out of laser cut acrylic based off of Adobe Illustrator designs, electronics, projected video, and studio art methods, I envision a delicate (interactive?) sculptural piece that embodies the concept of "diverse causal forces" that construct our character. The interactivity (preset or audience driven) will be meant to cause spectators to ponder what they are doing as an individual to help not only ourselves but our planet thrive. The type of human interaction and manipulation of the piece could be based off of sound, physical presence, artificial light, or physical touch. Various aspects of the piece that will be affected could be LED lights, sound, fiber optics, and abstract projected video. The design of the sculpture will be based off of inspiration from real ecological communities shaped into a seemingly simple community (or simple such as we perceive our environment at first glance). The piece will attempt to include the microscopic level we don't tend to think about and the reoccurring theme of self-reference or endless looping/ cycles. Although a lot more difficult in execution, another rendition worth mentioning would be to attempt in creating a small environment of plant organisms which depend on human care in order to support itself as a social experiment to see if spectators care enough to make a difference. 

Skills needed for project completion will include ability to use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, simple electronic knowledge, assembling of the final product using adhesives, power tools, or other creative methods. The skills I will need to learn at a greater depth will be visual and sonic coding either through MaxMSP or Arduino and possibly learning how projection map if video will be implemented. 

Resources that will be utilized throughout the entirety of this project will be research tools from the library, databases, and online sources, Plasticare for laser cut acrylic pieces, Sparkfun and/ or Adafruit for electronic materials, and stores like Meiningers and Home Depot for extra necessities. TechCheck within the EDP major at DU will also be utilized for technologies needed for final piece. 

The final deliverable will include documentation of processes performed to construct the piece in short video and photography, readings and research which inspired the project, additional original writings, and the final sculptural piece to be hopefully displayed in the Hypercube. 

Inspiration for understanding the projected product of this piece can be found in the following works.

Mary Franck visualizes an alien like archipelago sculpture constructed from laser cut wooden structures and water paired with projected light and sound that interacts with spectators within the piece's environment. This is a beautifully simple piece that serves as how technology can symbolically represent how humans effect microbiological environments.

The piece above is a previous work I have done, entitled Living Mandala, meant to realize the symbolic meaning of mandalas in Buddhist culture. I have included this piece as an example since it maintains plant life with human dependency. Each base level was designed in Illustrator and laser cut out of acrylic; a similar method I would like to pursue with my capstone project. 

Link to projected schedule of completion

"Human behavior flows from three main sources; desire, emotion, and knowledge"

~Plato

1/17/17 // Progress in Final Construction 

In contemplation of what this unacknowledged essence that plays extreme roles in shaping our symbolic "consciences", I find myself constantly running into the problems of how to convey this concept or the beginning, most infantile representation of it. I decided to focus only the concept of self-reference and infinite it's complexity spawned by a spiraling of symbol realization; the symbols our bundle of brain particles decide to label with meaning. If we developed the concept of our "conscience" through experiences with symbolic worldly interaction, then why give the label of most complex essence to humans, especially since we can't become self-actualized ourselves unless we are able to fully realize what happens around us. There then begins this idea of an infinite looping, an interaction between the physical parts of our being (gluons, protons, photons, atoms) and the symbolic references (personality, thinking, ideas) built by our earthly experiences. The physical system is what drives us, but we define its meaning as more important.

My project will attempt to start conversation about self- reference theory through study of self-realized "symbols" in the environment which inspires our inner physics to grasp onto these "symbols" to grow our character... Specifically the things that we tend to push to the side as inconsequential to how we define ourselves.

The piece will be heavily influenced by this idea of our minds constantly perceiving symbols, learning new information, changing or reinforcing thoughts, self-actualization, and then again perceiving new symbols.

The meaning carried by the symbols, obvious or not (that is up to the observer), are demonstrative of an upside-down causality where meanings of things seem to matter more than the physical being itself.

Main components of project:

Life → Our environment, real, physical, growing. The things around us we may tend to ignore. By containing real life my hope is that the spectator will then perceive the invented environment as living itself.

Mirrors → our act of perceiving life around us and creating endless loops of unknown chemical reactions while representing concept of self-reference. The mirrors will also create the illusion of the inside environment taking up endless space like a black hole or as some part of the universe to create something unfathomable and mysterious.

Lights → distort the views of the observer so that what is really important, the main focus inside the piece, will be shown as greater. Ideally, lights would only be activated once interested is shown and the observer has entered a certain proximity to the piece. This is to recreate the idea that we don't think about these dense concepts until they are brought to light. 

Reference (to scroll carousel click the far right image):

11/24/2017 // Symbols

"For us conscious, self-aware, 'I'- driven humans, it is almost impossible to images moving down, down, down to the neuronal level of our brains, and slowing down, down, down so that we can see (or at least can imagine) each and every chemical squirting in each and every synaptic cleft --- a gigantic shift in perspective that would seem to instantly drains brain activity of all symbolic quality. No meanings would remain down there, no sticky semantic juice --- just astronomical number of meaningless, inanimate molecules, squirting meaninglessly away, all the livelong, lifeless day" (Douglass Hofstadter) 

"...it is important to keep in mind the fact that all of the simpler, more primitive, electric, atomic, molecular, cellular, and physiological forces remain present, of course, and they all continue to operate. None has been canceled, but these lower level forces and properties have been superseded, encompassed, as it were, by those forces of successively higher organizational entities…" (Roger Sperry)

I paired these quotes together in order to demonstrate the importance of the perception of symbols both within unfolding self-reference theory and within my project. Symbols are what gives our mind the ability to create a personalized and intricate experience which is then used as a way to define ourselves as individuals. What's even more interesting is that these experiences are commonly accepted by other individuals as well; relatability. Our brain and environments are perpetually bouncing off reflections of one another to create meaning.

Reference images:

I plan to purchase reflective materials, lights, and other resources to start building my representation of this strange, unexplored reflective environment from the inside out later this week from various art stores and possibly hardware departments. The goal is to create an environment that can be self contained from outside observance, but the inside is seemingly endless. Photos of progress will be posted once construction has started.

As I continue research I am more and more confident in the final product. I am excited to find out how different materials interact with one another to create the desired outcome I am envisioning.

1/31/17 // Mirrors

"Self-reference is often an epiphenomenon of reflection of some kind. The word reflection actually means 'bending back'. We use reflection to denote situations such as: viewing yourself in a mirror; exercising introspection (that is, reflecting on yourself and your own thoughts and feelings); having a theory which is contained in its own subject matter; having a picture which contains a picture of itself. Reflection can also be considered as a name for all the situations in which someone or something views itself “from the outside”. (Thomas Bolander)

The use of mirrors is going to be a crucial starting point for my project as I have stated in previous posts. The last week I have been experimenting with shapes, mirrors, colors, and patterns in order to figure out how to correctly and obviously achieve the creation of an defined yet endless environment. I have made great conceptual progress and am looking forward to start backbone construction of the final piece I wish to create. Elements that I may add to the design include 3D printed artifacts (similar to the ones in my reference photos within this post) to help hide electronics, provide captivating reflections, and a base for which plant life will be supported. 

Reflective experiments:

The pictures posted above are my attempts to play with the interesting reflections produced with different angles, shapes, and colors. Learning from these little experiments, I realize the importance of varying angles at certain junctions and the possibility of making my capsule large enough for the spectator to enter so that they are completely consumed by this environment and able to fully see the endless reflection phenomenon created by two mirrors facing one another. 

Reference images:

2/7/17 // Proof of Concept

So far in my attempts of creating this magical environment, I have made concrete decisions on the materials and aesthetic design of the inside of my piece. If viewed from the outside the mainly visible component will be black acrylic or some sort of black semi- glossy or reflective material. I have acquired eight 20 inch equilateral triangles with which to make an octahedron shape (or at least this shape will serve as a preliminary design). 

One of the faces of the piece will be removed so that the spectator will be able enter inside or insert their head to become fully enveloped within the augmented atmosphere. Inside there will be added mirrors to create interesting refraction angles, iridescent film, fiber optic lighting, and 3D printed additions as support and aesthetically design Tillandsia holders.  

I have completed several 3D models of stackable and mutable geometric enclosures through Maya in order to play with the various ways light will interact within the enclosure to create a more interesting effect. Below is a list of materials I have in order to complete the next immediate steps this week:

List of materials:

>Acrylic glue or alternative adhesive

>Acrylic mirror

>Fiber optics/ LEDS

>Maya files for 3D printing

>Iridescent material

>Tillandsia

Moving forward I am thinking of ways to make the effect of the environment bigger and more influential on the spectator: perhaps increasing the size and scope of the piece or working with more or less of one material, etc. These are all things that will be considered in the preliminary construction of the piece. Ideally, I would love to install in interactive element as well with a PIR sensor that controls the fiber optic lighting as the spectator interacts with the space. I am planning on figuring out how this can be accomplished to generate a more intimate experience within my augmented reality/ abstracted visualization of the mind's inner workings.

2/14/17  // "Making" and Progress

Making

It can be argued that people are no longer “making” after the Industrial Revolution… People are capable, but the interest isn’t there to fully delve deep into how critical content can be driven out of creating. It is in human nature to express ourselves through innovation, thinking, creating, therefore, honing in on the capability of making become extremely important. Making doesn’t necessarily mean creating the most advanced technological inventions, but finding new ways to abstractedly create new ideas and proposals around these technologies. One must always question the system, whatever system it may be. There are always rules and regulations, but more often than not these are meant to be stretched, manipulated and in some instances broken. Whether it be individual tinkering, or grand collaborative projects starting from a prototype, any advancement allows us to ponder what electronic tools we could be using in the near future.  As beautiful as the endless possibilities making allows virtually every human to reach are, there are many controversial conversations to be had about what it means to spark criticism on societal norms. Is it enough to make something for the joy it brings to the maker?  Can a label be put on what it means to make something? Is making still making if tools like Home Depot and Sparkfun are being utilized? How can we break those ties and should we try? People are more interested in the processes of making things rather than the critical context of the thing that was made. How important is it to have a deep knowledge of how things work? Open source can be seen as a double edged sword since we can access more data to become “self-sufficient” creators, however the other end still receives this data to commercialize as well. If making means to physically manifest something that is capable of representing one’s unique ideas, then these technologies that allow us to successfully express ourselves in such ways become essential. Our lives are becoming more and more complex that we need to utilize open source references and some commercial industries to continue advancement. We are only makers when these tools are accessible. Whether that statement is accepted or disputed, critical making brings up alternative ways to continue conversations on creating something in a different way than going through the commonly accepted and encouraged methods. Making something that pushes the boundaries of societal norms encourages a revolutionary way of thinking about breaking conformist views. For example, adversarial design breaks the bond that traditional design carries with its consumers by creating art that speaks to political change. Creating work that impedes an action or behavior rather than reassuring one may receive more attention than work that will aide others. Consequently, an extremely important question to ask when making is how your work is going to speak to ALL people.

Progress

After having received the nine triangular acrylic mirrors, I have begun to create a more solid plan of construction for my installation. Instead of only displaying one singular piece, there will be a sort of sculptural representation of the outside influences that will be meant to lead interest to the mirrored enclosure. The mirror cuts will be used to make this enclosure and will most likely form an octahedron missing a face that allows the viewer to see the design on the inside. This will be completed with acrylic, iridescent/ reflective/ refractive material so that the light emitted from the piece will create an intriguing pattern across the occupied space. See reference images below:

I am beginning to think that maybe most of the complex imagery should be displayed outside of the enclosed mirror sculpture, which is different to what I had originally proposed. I believe making this change will draw more interest out of spectators and encourage the message that there is something, somewhere much deeper than we can possibly imagine behind how humans perceive things. I also have to really think about the way I am planning on lighting my project. I have two options thus far. One is to see what kind of effects I can get with fiber optics, but the problem would be the lack of brightness intensity which may be very important in this project. The other would be to use super bright LEDs, but then find a way to hide them in a visually stimulating way. To me this provides a new challenge as to how to create two different yet relating aesthetics in one art piece. 

2/21/2017 // Geometric Shadows

I have made a lot of progress in the past week regarding how the final piece will be constructed. I kept wracking my brain over how to incorporate intriguing 3-D printed additives that will give off interesting shadows and points of refraction once light is added into the piece. I decided to go with paper sculpture for two reasons: (1) it is much easier to design shapes and sizes exactly how I want them and (2) it will save me an immense amount of time. Below are two photos, one from a previous 3D print and one with the design I will be using made out of paper. 

The finished product will be a sort of crystalline structure that appears much simpler than it actually is. The color of the paper is the same as the color of the back of the acrylic mirrored triangles to create a more uniform aesthetic. The paper geometric sculptures will be positioned similarly to how they sit in the image above. Once one takes a look inside of what I been now referring to as my own little "cubic half-foot" of cranial universe, as inspired by Nuerophsycologist Roger Sperry, you will find more of these structures augmented by iridescence and LEDs. However, I have programmed a PIR sensor to detect movement as the trigger that will lighten the LEDs and illuminate the space. I hope to use fiber optics to create a sort of "starry" effect, but will also be playing with how to achieve the most magical inside environment one construction is underway... very, very soon!

Further documentation and reference images can be found below:

(for below click right edge to scroll through carousel):

Video of PIR motion senor activating two LEDs:

The most difficult part of piecing this project together has been finding out ways to create this magical environment without being able to really put everything together. Since I only have the nine acrylic mirrors and am planning to use them all in final construction, I can't be putting everything together until I am comfortable with every other outside variable. Thankfully, having almost everything exactly where I want to be now I will be moving into final construction this weekend. 

2/28/2017 // Lights 

This week I started the construction of the final installation. I made a four- sided pyramid out of the 20 inch acrylic piece that I got from plasticare. Inside of the faces, I placed a few of the intricate, web-like paper sculptures. Using what I can from what resources I have being budgeted and on schedule, I have found iridescent jewels that refract light in colorful patterns. I placed an opaque film to diffuse the light and the finished result creates an interesting effect pleasing to the eye if viewed in darkness. Thus, the finished installation will be displayed in a dark area with most light generated from the LEDs I am using. The octahedron will lack only one face so that the viewer can peer inside. I am hoping to either build or display the piece on a table to make this easy for the viewer. The supports will be 3D printed and mimic the shape of the paper cut designs. The following pictures are representative of the structure's principal phase of construction. 

Going forward, I have a lot of work to do. It took me a few hours to get the above photos constructed, but once everything can be permanently adhered together, I feel that production will go dramatically faster. The next steps will be to continue making the interweaving, complex paper designs, fix the code to make the LEDs fade in and out, and continue construction of the installation- octahedron and surrounding environment. I am expecting to be done with all major work by the end of this weekend. 

3/7/17//  Electronics

This last weekend I scrapped all of the pre-existing grey paper triangles I had made for the inside of my octahedron (they are still in this weeks posts because I have not incorporated them into the sculpture yet). I decided to go with a much more clean, professional type of pure white paper, and to make the designs a bit more intricate. This decision was made in order to give the piece a much more uniform look since the intricate, delicate paper sculpture will be a large part of the outside of the piece. I am going to carve the material into a neuron based design that will serve as an enclosure around the piece. This will help tie the piece into not only it's surroundings, but the inside of the octahedron. As for lights, I finished soldering the 4 main sources of inside light so that they are ready to be wired to the arduino and PIR sensor. I will need to finish soldering a few more groups of LEDs for the outside of the octahedron as well. These will not be activated by any sensor, but will be constantly lit. The effect of the lights once put in the enclosure are shown in the following photos. 

I have also started 3D printing the small supports that will be holding the octahedron together. The following photos show the first support that I printed for the other half of the octahedron. The next supports set to print this week will be to hold the edges and sides in place. Nothing was secured permanently when the photos below where taken.

Click on the right side to scroll:

The final piece will ideally be presented at eye-level where onlookers can walk up and trigger the hidden PIR sensor that activates the inside lights. The outside will be covered by intricate neuron like designs to elegantly hide electronics and the outside of the mirrored enclosure. The neuron designs will also have LEDs connected to fiber optics that will give a more galaxy like feel if the PIR sensor isn't activated. This piece is meant to be viewed in a dark room so the lights can have a more dramatic effect on the overall experience with the installation. Being enclosed in the darkness has also given off the effect that the presence of mirrors does not become noticed until the lights are illuminated. Spectators will have to take a moment until they realize they are actually looking at a reflection of themselves past all of the infill of the octahedron space. 

Reference images of this week:

"The truth comes when you can see that your self-image is just a convenient reference point and nothing more, and that you as you had imagined yourself does not exist" 

~Brad Warner

3/17/17 // Final

When I first set off to create this piece I really wanted to create a visual representation of how the chemical reactions currently happening inside of our minds become something greater, something defined as our “conscience”. The concept of self-reference can simply be the fact that on the most basic level of being is nothing but unthinkable amounts of particles reacting with one another based on how we experience the environment around us. There have been a lot of similarities drawn between feedback loops and those exact reactions that happen in our mind. In order to re-create this experience of the power of this looping, I used mirrors in order to seemingly invent a new environment that should not exist in the small space that it seemingly occupies. The idea was to make an object that looks much larger from within than it does once observed from an outside perspective. The final piece was constructed from seven 20 inch acrylic mirrors. They were constructed in the shape of an octahedron with one face missing so that the inside could be viewed from the top. It was a real challenge to figure out how to make the inside a complex magical realm, but using complex geometric figures, lights, and live greenery seemed like the most successful way this could be done in the time allotted for this project. I cut very intricate designs and constructed pyramidal shapes not only as a way to mimic the geometry created by the octahedron itself but also as a reference to the fact that our minds tend to be oversimplified as an organized, logical notion when it is quite a complex concept humans have yet to grasp completely. This perception was then juxtaposed by the fluidity of the parts surrounding and leading the eye into the center of the mirrors. As our surroundings are more commonly seen as the complex mechanism that shapes our character, the organic movement carved carefully into the paper and the larger, more vibrant plants and fiber optics are stationed to look like they are pouring into the piece. Finally, the slowly fading LEDs were representational of these chemical reactions firing off every moment.

I was very happy with how all of the aforementioned pieces of the work came together to create a very interesting and stimulating visual experience. Moving forward, I would love to try to make the piece a lot bigger (it would be incredible to occupy at least an entire corner of a room as an installation piece). I also am planning on going back and seeing how I can design and cut more delicate and intricate designs out of the paper used to surround the piece, whether that would mean to use thinner paper or a better quality X-acto knife. I also want to possibly explore designing 3D printed or CNC cut planters to hold real plants on the outside of the mirrored enclosure. Moreover, I really need to find a better way of displaying the piece. For my final presentation I had it displayed on a table to make it easier for viewing, but it might be intriguing to see what happens to the experience if the piece was hung or a few different sized mirrored enclosures were all hung along with hanging planters to give off the vibe of star gazing or looking up at the universe/ into one’s mind. There is a lot of potential to create an incredibly thought-provoking digital installation about the complexity of our minds; something the majority of us tend to look over on a daily basis.

The following photos were taken of the final piece:

disclaimer: unfortunately the quality of the video is poor quality since I do not own a proper camera to take footage. 

"You can imagine a soul as being a detailed, elaborate pattern that exists very clearly in one brain. When a person dies, the original is not longer around. But there are other versions of it in other people's brains. It's a less detailed copy, it's coarse-grained" 

~Douglas Hofstadter