Alan Dunning Paul Woodrow The Madhouse (Einstein’s Brain Project)

Date(s): Sep 15 to Oct 20 2001

Exhibition

The Madhouse (Einstein’s Brain Project)

Alan Dunning

The Madhouse, a site-specific installation and core element of the Einstein's Brain Project, questions our notions of reality by creating a narrative based on an immediate past.

Participants wear EEG sensors fitted to a lightweight tracked HMD so as to record the frequency and amplitude of their brain waves. At the centre of the room is a life-size cast of the human body. As the participant touches the body, the installation changes as images and sounds are sent to the projections and HMDs. The participants seem plunged into consensual hallucinations, responding to instructions given by the mysterious mannequin.

The Madhouse (Einstein’s Brain Project)

Alan Dunning

Alan Dunning ha been creating immersive installations since 1979. His work has been presented at many institutions including the National Gallery of Canada, Visual Arts Museum, New York, Biblioteca de Mexico, Mexico City, the 4th St. Petersburg Biennial, Russia, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, the Banff Centre, and Rutgers University. He is currently involved in the development of biologically driven software and hardware interface for distributed virtual environments. He is Chair of Media Arts and Digital Technologies at the Alberta College of Art in Calgary.

Paul Woodrow has been involved in inter-disciplinary and multi-media activities since the late 1960s. He has collaborated with many artists including Iain Baxter (N.E. Thing Co.), Hervé Fischer (The Sociological Art Group of Paris), Genesis P. Orridge (Coum Transmissions, England), Clive Robertson (W.O.R.K.S., Canada). He has exhibited across the world including the Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm and The Tate Gallery, London. He is presently co-ordinator of Art Theory in the Department of Art, University of Calgary.