Kaushal, V., 2016.

Neu-Collective Consciousness (2016) by Vik Kaushal (Logan & Wilcox)

Neu-collective consciousness is a performance commissioned and funded by Openculture.org, The Everyman Theatre and the Art council. The performance/Experiment aimed to find new ways to complement, extend and enrich the body, mentally, physically and socially, reconnecting the body, the mind and its environment. Through the design and implementation of psychophysical interfaces, which used measurements of the ways that the body performs to provide triggers and content for shared experiences. Generating audio-visual environments from individual and collective biometric data. Thus creating a cyclical process of information transferal and perception that forms beneficial generative loops of effect on the participants. When an individual is placed in this sensory environment, the output reflected the physiological and mental state of the person(s) connected, allowing users to explore and interact with their unconscious biological responses. Giving us a richer and deeper understanding of the multisensory nature of the 'lived experience', re-establishing the connections between the body, the mind and its environment. This Cross-disciplinary performance draws-on previous work carried out by Alvin Lucier and Richard Teitelbaum and also extends the research carried out by Dr George Khut of Sydney University. The performance took place in May 2016 at Every Man Theatre in Liverpool (UK) and was attended by over 2000 people. This research was also presented as a paper at the Edinburgh College of Art, 'siren' conference in 2017.