We are more than hundred year biological vessels, we are million year creatures embedded in a billion year process.
Altamira
Created for the 2004 art exhibition "Hyper-Runt" at Philadelphia's landmark National Products Building, the Altamira project is a neuro-prosthetic that triggers electrophosphenes by subcutaneous stimulation of the retina with radio waves recorded from pulsar's at the edge of the Universe. The project provides a daring method for exploring the deep poetry encoded in celestial objects, creating a cosmologically scaled experimental work of art in the "mind's eye" of the viewer. The exhibition included pioneering artists in the field, Ken Goldberg, Natalie Jeremijenko, Mark Napier, and was curated by renowned artist and 2005 Rankin Distinguished Lecturer at Drexel University, Ebon Fisher.
Phosphenes are a mesmerizing visual phenomenon common to all mankind. They are the patterns of colored light we often experience when we close our eyes tightly, or when we adapt to a dark room. Electrophosphenes are a method of electrically reproducing the same visual effect as phosphenes, but with a potentially greater range of patterns, color subtlety and precision.
Electrophosphenes in Altamira are created by placing a miniature set of electrodes on the temples and applying a tiny voltage (one volt at one milliampere current) that is pulse modulated by pulsars at frequencies typically between 5-100 Hz. Electrophosphenes have been studied for more than two-hundred years, including extensive investigation by early scientific luminaries such as Benjamin Franklin and Johannes Purkinje. However, the majority of experimental arrangements have typically used man-made electrical and pulse modulation systems to produce the effect. The system developed in Altamira instead uses naturally occurring celestial objects (pulsars) as the primary electrophosphene signal input.
Pulsars are rapidly rotating cores of collapsed stars. These tiny dense stars are ringed by massive magnetic fields that generate strong magnetic poles that emit focused beams of radio waves. As the pulsar quickly rotates, its radio beacons sweep space like a lighthouse. Each time the beams passes Earth or a satellite, it produces an electromagnetic pulse that can be detected and repurposed. The pulse period of these unusual stars is extremely precise, but the pulse signatures are highly unique to each star. A substantial percentage of catalogued pulsars produce pulse frequencies and pulse shapes perfect for generating unique forms of electrophosphenes.
Altamira deftly fuses two distinct and seemingly unrelated research areas into a new and visceral experimental art experience. It is physically connected to the heart of our evolutionary neurobiology, and engages intimately with our beginnings in the stars. More than a high-tech stimulation of psychedelic colors and patterns inside a viewer's head, Altamira explores the uncanny connections that seem to exist between our biology and the universe from which we have emerged.