“Attention Span” @ Spark Meet & Greet

Attention Span is a series of video loops to be watched while listening to binaural beats. The combined A/V effect may produce a trance in the viewer. This is a magnification of what may be happening when someone watches television. Download the Brainwave Generator for Windows or Sbagen for Mac/Linux for audio. I apologize, but the audio effect is lost in compression for the web.

Video explodes into a frenzy of feedback loops and bright colors. Sparks hurl toward the glass, as if they are stuck to the interior of the video monitor. The explosion is perpetual. Headphones are attached to the computer, so viewers listen to a slow movement of pink noise and sinusoidal waveforms that are designed to produce Delta brainwaves. Delta brainwaves are produced by the human brain during REM sleep. An obsolete computer jitters the video and skips the audio, leaving the viewer with a sense of frustration with the piece.

Television watchers are unwitting participants in an exercise of brainwashing. The TV viewer is trapped inside the narrative. The watcher becomes anxious whenever video is not replicated from a bell shaped plot formula. Numerous studies have shown ADHD and possibly Autism is linked to heavy TV watching in infants and toddlers. The 2 second cut warps the viewer’s perceptions in everyday life.

“Attention Span” is on display at The Spark Contemporary Art Space. This project is part of the 2nd Annual Syracuse University MFA Invitational and Th3: The Third Thursday, September 20th, 2007. Spark Art Space is located on the corner of E. Fayette and S. Crouse Ave.