混乱的故事线 (2014) Original

“The Chaotic Storyline” is an interactive installation and research experiment that utilizes brainwave sensing technology to capture brainwave data, and generate real time visualizations. At the same time, the data can affect the play order of the plots in a stage movie, Hamlet. Brainwaves, as a chaotic system, are the physical reflections of human neural activities. Let alone the most extreme cases such as insanity or Alzheimer, most of people believe they have free will, but what if we overrated our ability to control our own mind? The nature of thinking is the constant transmissions of electrical signals from neurons, which is also the inherent biological attribute of human brain. So the brain that produces thoughts, is actually a thing-in-itself (Kant's philosophical concept). It forces one's subjective will power to compete with its biological nature and operational mechanisms. This project tries to explore and test how easily people can lose control of their own mind in the most banal daily activity, like watching a movie. Hamlet is a classic representative of the most organized linear narrative system in the human history. Asking the participants to watch this movie makes an interesting contrast of the brainwave chaos in their own mind. 9 points were chosen on the timeline of the movie. They are the most important plot points in the story of Hamlet. On the other hand, a computer program was developed to receive the brainwave data of the participant via the brainwave sensor, Neurosky. If the participant is concentrated, the video will play normally. If distracted, the program will pass the brainwave data through an algorithm to get a result ranging from 0 to 8, which responds to the 9 plot points on the timeline. Then the anchor of video player will jump to that certain point. Multiple participants were invited to join this interactive experience. Although one of the participants was commonly considered an exceptionally concentrated person at work, he could not even stay focused over 2 minutes. For others, the extreme was no more than twenty seconds. This project makes people realize the subconscious efforts they have to make to control their mind and fight with their own biological nature. It also contemplates the huge limitation of the human race on the self-consciousness, and how fragile its biological foundation is, even though the complex world of the consciousness is entirely built upon it.