Jason Snell

Positive Review:
We’ve all seem to have become resigned that technology is somethings that consumes our attention and time. But Snell’s work has shown us that technology can be used to bring us back to ourselves, something that captures the most fascinating parts of of being human and shows it back to us. His EEG art is intuitive, layered with meaning, and holds itself as an art in itself beyond the novelty of using a new technology.

Critical review:
A pony trick first revealed to the world by Alvin Lucier in 1965, Snell does his best to woo modern audiences with his misleading slogan, “making music from thought.” Only because most audiences aren’t aware of the small field of EEG work, he’s able to sell his snake oil experiences as “innovative.”

I thought I’d be picking a very specific topic that might exclude a lot of my work history, but she suggested starting with a lineage, a tree of my key moments in my art practice, and perhaps finding a manifesto or theme of my work, or where it is now. I did a similar map in 2020 that I need to dig up, and even at the time I remember thinking it felt like thesis work.

Also some envisioning type work, of what would my work look like if the whole world saw it. This is something I do routinely, and will be helpful to do it in this process. Doing this work for my art, in parallel with the commercialization work I’m doing with Future Labs / E Labs. Having a space just for the art is important, and the art practice is key to creating new ideas and staying out of the traps of the product mindset.

Some themes I heard in my discussion were emergent phenomenon, my prior work with generative containers, sound almost always being a part of the medium.

Overall review of the process, looked at what I wrote for my topic ideas last time. I was curious with classes or tutorials could be sources (like I’ve started the Nature of Code video series / book from Dan Shiffman).

I think picking something specific will be a challenge for me. I like entire ecosystems of ideas, and jumping from one related idea to the next (like “consciousness” or “biofeedback”

Some questions that came up today:

Is stimuli through feedback more impactful than stimuli through the natural world?

What happens in human consciousness when a biometric (like your heartbeat) is externalized (like as a sound)?

A more focused version:
What happens in consciousness when it perceives itself?

A question from my previous notes:
Can music alter consciousness?

And Hakani had a followup question, along the lines of:
What would a feedback system look like or impact an unconscious or inanimate being? (initial thoughts were an increase in electricity, and perhaps, eventually, leads to life energy itself)

Which makes me think, is feedback a core component of life systems? Audio feedback has a life of its own – if it’s too weak it dies off, if it’s too strong, it destroys the sound system. Hmm…

Had first group meeting with Sarah Hakani (she’s the best!)
Excited to start my thesis exploration / process.
2:51am in Berlin (blarg)