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Traces of the Mind //
custom electronics/light mind machine, chunks of graphite, red rosin paper, deer antlers, hand-held LEDs, and circuit diagram // 8’ x 12’ x 12’ // Duration: 1.5 hours // 2007
Traces of the Mind is a durational drawing performance in which Wilson wore a "mind machine" in an installation environment.
It was partially an experiment in seeking other ways of making, knowing, and connecting with the world and also partially a performance-based reenactment of what it might have been like to use cave walls – as those archaic explorers and painters at Lascaux and Altamira – as screens for mental projection. Wilson puts himself in the position of the archaic human who, inspired by spontaneous visualization arising from the visual depravity of the mind in the cave, made some of the earliest “art.” For these individuals, the creations in the cave were intimately connected with, even inseparable from, life and some say the supernatural.
Wilson built mind machine which he wore. It alters the brain's frequency through pulses of flashing LED lights in closed eyes; the brain syncs with the pulses through a process called entrainment. It goes through a 14 minute sequence that simulates the brain's frequency changes during a deep meditation experience. Using chunks of graphite, Wilson records the changing patterns generated by his mind by the SLM.
Visitors to the installation space were invited to explore using LEDs hanging from a deer antlers mounted to the wall next to the entrance. A diagram of the circuit was pierced by one of the points of the antlers.