Theraputica: The first attempted performance of Theraputica in the woods in Woldingham. Photo: Fredrick Lincoln. 1979
Theraputica: The general installation view of the main fuselage and sub conscious interrupter (Fan) in the wood in Woldingham prior to the 1979 performance.
Theraputica: Main Fuselage and the Sub Conscious Interrupter, awaiting inflation with Helium, filmed in Friuli, Italy. 2010
Theraputica: Drawing of Main Fuselage and the Sub Conscious Interrupted. 2010
Theraputica: The Confusion plates, compression coil and pressure meter in the Main Fuselage, Filmed in Friuli, Italy. 2010
Theraputica: The Memory exchanges and control valves on the front of the Main Fuselage. 2010
Theraputica: The pneumatic actuator cylinders attached to the Vanes of the Main Fuselarge, filmed in Friuli, Italy, 2010.
Theraputica: The Oscilloscope on top of the Interphase unit for converting vestibular responses into timed pneumatic pulses, which control the Main Fuselage’s three stability vanes, filmed in Friuli, Italy, 2010.
Theraputica: Adjusting the oscilloscope’s response and doing final micro checks before flight. 2010
Theraputica: Gliding earthbound as gas is abruptly released, filmed in Friuli, Italy. 2010
Theraputica: The sub-conscious interrupter (Fan) can be seen from the air effecting the fuselages decisions in memory build up. 2010
Theraputica: Gliding over the Main Fuselage at thirty feet during a test flight of the vestibular response circuit. Filmed in Friuli ,Italy, 2010
Theraputica: Gliding over the Main Fuselage at thirty feet during a test flight of the vestibular response circuit. Filmed in Friuli, Italy. 2010
Theraputica: Preparing for a controlled decent by releasing helium from the system’s control valve on the Harness. 2010.
Theraputica, The flyer’s Harness at the conclusion of tests, filmed in Friuli, Italy. 2010
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ABOUT THERAPUTICA (1978 - 1979)
Therapeutica was a project that used air to describe the neurological processes involved in conscious and unconscious thought transfer. By observing the ways air was manipulated within its fuselage-like structure certain fundamental properties involved in cognitive processing could be observed. Therapeutica was intended to exist only for a single performance. During this performance the fuselage and the artist, both fed directly from compressed air and helium bottles, were affected by neural transmissions releasing air into the chance machinery of the fuselage.
The work was comprised of three parts: the main fuselage housing two pneumatic vanes, a crossover vane, a transparent battery of confusion plates, a pressure inspection meter and a memory exchange unit. The second part was a pneumatically driven fan, (representing subconscious intervention) which was positioned in close proximately to the fuselage, and lastly an oscilloscope connected to specially constructed interphaseing box monitoring neural transmissions and turning them into air pulses.
The work existed as a single performance during which the main fuselage floated in air supported by helium filled meteorological balloons together with the artist floating in the same locality while electrically connected to the oscilloscope.
A series of sensors attached to various parts of his body influenced the pulsing of air exiting the oscilloscope /controller to the pneumatic fan, as well as controlling the pitch,roll and yaw of the fuselage .The fan would randomly affect the vanes on the fuselage switching air (conscious matter) to operate various parts of the structure. The outcome was to avoid buildup of matter in the memory exchanges (small interlocked balloons), which could inevitably cause the performances termination. The effects and outcomes of using air as a metaphor for thought could be observed as if in a three-dimensional planar model when viewing the fuselage’s confusion plates.
Theraputica use of monitoring the Vestibular system, one of the oldest known functions of the brain, to activate the fuselage’s mechanisium, is fundamental to understanding our ability to balance in space, the work attempts to describe out of body experiences, by neural intervention ,allowing one to float in un aided syncopation within a weightless void,
Air and thought are both intangible and ubiquitous and in both cases it is the mechanisms in Theraputica that reveals and manifests its form. Four attempts over the years to film a performance were abruptly terinated by inclement weather the only surviving evidence of the performance is through photographs these explicate the role each part plays in this early process work.
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