Chapter 2 Internet and computers as mysterious power generators
I have concentrated my research on my theme for the creative project, which is a hypothetical issue: that the internet and computers may have a mysterious power through collaborative interactions to predict answers which we do not know yet.
To justify the notion that internet and computers may equal the predictive power of fortune-telling, I utilized the theory of collective unconscious and synchronicity from Carl Gustav Jung to illustrate the rational prediction of the I Ching. In addition, to justify the rationality between fortune-telling and computer binary code, I refer to Leibniz’s research on binary arithmetic. The research on how the mind may affect machines by Professor Robert Jahn of Princeton University is also another important contribution to explain the rationality and likely accuracy in attempting prediction through computers. While there are some contentions between the internet and computers as fortune-tellers, I was able to provide supporting academic theories to illustrate the relation between collaborative creation, the collective unconscious and synchronicity to bring out the connections between each element. Based on the supporting academic theories that I have mentioned above, it is clearly evident that the creative project of my research is not merely a hypothetical net art project, but also an authentic online fortune-telling project. When users participate in the creative project, their personal unconscious and collective unconscious are connected, at the same time they are experiencing the same event of synchronicity, and the answer that users are seeking is being traversed between their personal unconscious and the wider collective unconscious. That is to say, the art form which users contribute to is an archetypal symbol generated by the participants, and people are able to resolve their doubts through their interpretation of the symbol.
To justify the notion that internet and computers may equal the predictive power of fortune-telling, I utilized the theory of collective unconscious and synchronicity from Carl Gustav Jung to illustrate the rational prediction of the I Ching. In addition, to justify the rationality between fortune-telling and computer binary code, I refer to Leibniz’s research on binary arithmetic. The research on how the mind may affect machines by Professor Robert Jahn of Princeton University is also another important contribution to explain the rationality and likely accuracy in attempting prediction through computers. While there are some contentions between the internet and computers as fortune-tellers, I was able to provide supporting academic theories to illustrate the relation between collaborative creation, the collective unconscious and synchronicity to bring out the connections between each element. Based on the supporting academic theories that I have mentioned above, it is clearly evident that the creative project of my research is not merely a hypothetical net art project, but also an authentic online fortune-telling project. When users participate in the creative project, their personal unconscious and collective unconscious are connected, at the same time they are experiencing the same event of synchronicity, and the answer that users are seeking is being traversed between their personal unconscious and the wider collective unconscious. That is to say, the art form which users contribute to is an archetypal symbol generated by the participants, and people are able to resolve their doubts through their interpretation of the symbol.
2-1 The rational philosophies
Collective unconscious
Collective unconscious is a term from analytical psychology originally coined by Carl Jung. While Freud did not distinguish between an "individual psychology" and a "collective psychology", Jung distinguished the collective unconscious from the personal unconscious particular to each human being. The collective unconscious is also known as "a reservoir of the experiences of our species” (Wikipedia). From Jung's view point, the “personal unconscious” is based on the “collective unconscious”. It is the deep structure of one’s psychology, which is congenital and generally unanimous. If we liken these two theories to an island, consciousness would be the portion of island above the sea surface; the representation of the personal unconscious is the part of the island that is under the surface, which cannot usually be seen, but it sometimes emerges from the sea by the flow of tides; the common base of all isolated islands is the seabed under the deep sea, it may be regarded as the collective unconscious (Hsin-I Wang 2001, p. 27).
The personal unconscious is absolutely individual, including repressed desires and the content of experiences that have been forgotten. The collective unconscious does not come from personal experience, nor is it the outcome of what the person has learned, but rather it exists in every human being innately through heredity (Hsin-I Wang 2001, p. p25). In Jung’s notion of the collective unconscious, he regarded unconsciousness as a stockroom composed of the personal unconscious and collective unconscious. One part of the stockroom stored consciousness that once had been known but has been ignored or forgotten, and the other part of the stockroom inherited the unconscious experience of human history. The unconscious of experience does not exist in human consciousness, but forms part of the human history that comes from all mankind and is owned commonly by all people. This kind of experience is not easily perceived by individuals, but it can appear through the channel of dreams. Since ancient times, there have been numberless ancestors’ experiences repeated, and collected and stored in the human brain.
Just like Jung’s primitive cave in his dream, he did not depend on personal experience to reach the collective unconscious, but he could experience the collective unconscious through his dreams (Hsin-I Wang 2001, p. 31). For example, a great number of people in their sleep have experienced the feeling of being dropped from a very high place to the ground, then waking up frightened. According to the individual unconsciousness theory of Freud, this probably resulted from the intense pressure of the personal unconscious. But if we take the viewpoint of Jung’s collective unconscious, this example could support the scientific evidence that human ancestors come from the monkey family. People’s collective unconscious still remembers the frightened sense monkeys have of falling to the ground because of carelessness on trees when they were sleeping. Though the history of human being is already very far away from the monkey phase, the ‘monkey’s memory and experience’ still exist in the human unconscious, and the experience of this unconscious is possessed commonly by all mankind. Therefore, people still have and retain this experience in their subconscious mind.
Yet another example, most of us has an instinctive fear of the dark or of snakes. Referring to Jung’s theory, this is because our ancestors from the Eolithic era lived in caves and were often bitten by snakes and attacked by wild animals during the night. As a result, these human experiences have been stored in the collective unconscious. The notion behind this theory of Jung is that human instinct is closely related to the historical sense. In other words, except for the instincts of sex and violence that Freud talked about, when a person is born existent history has an impact on that person’s destiny, and brings meanings to the person’s life that combine it with human history. Hence, people are connected with the past, even receiving messages from the vast system about events in other people’s affairs.
The collective unconscious is constituted of this general eternal information which is beyond personal experience. Perhaps we can explain the phenomena of this so-called supernormal power from Jung’s perspective, such as communication through the world and universe, or the ability to know inside information or knowledge through supernatural power. If a person can communicate with his/her own unconscious, then the person will be able to connect to the collective unconscious through their personal unconscious. Since the store of collective unconscious of knowledge and experience comes from all human history, if a person can travel between personal unconscious and collective unconscious, he/she will be able to get messages from the vast system of the collective unconscious. Therefore, these people and these messages may be regarded as mystic predictors or the so called ‘sixth sense’.
Archetype
Jung believed that the personal unconscious and collective unconscious are different in terms of content, but happening continuously. Jung thought that people must able to learn to understand their own unconscious, then, they might have the ability to control the power between personal unconscious and collective unconscious. Thus, Jung proposed the theory of archetype in order to interpret the mutual relations between collective unconscious and personal unconscious.
An archetype is a generic, idealized model of a person, object or concept from which similar instances are derived, copied, patterned or emulated. In psychology, an archetype is a model of a person, personality or behaviour. The value in using archetypal characters in fiction derives from the fact that people are able to unconsciously recognize the archetype; thus, creating the motivation, behind the characters’ behaviour. In Jung’s psychological framework, the archetype is innate, providing universal prototypes for ideas and able to be used to interpret observations. A group of memories and interpretations associated with an archetype are a complex, e.g. a mother complex associated with the mother archetype (Wikipedia).
Jung believed that people have introverted and extroverted personalities simultaneously, rational and irrational reactions at the same time, and both male and female characteristics exist in the same body. This is also a concept of Yin and Yang in coordination. In addition, Jung stated that people have both conscious and unconscious thoughts at the same time. People are not merely driven by incidents from the past, but also are pushed by expectations from the future. Followings is a list of the main archetypes stated by Jung.
◎The self: In Jungian theory, the Self is one of the archetypes. It signifies the coherent whole, unified consciousness and unconscious of a person. The Self, according to Jung, is realized as the product of individuation, which in the Jungian view is the process of integrating one's personality. For Jung, the self is symbolized by the circle (especially when divided in four quadrants), the square, or the mandala: hence, the Self is the centre of the human spirit.
Collective unconscious
Collective unconscious is a term from analytical psychology originally coined by Carl Jung. While Freud did not distinguish between an "individual psychology" and a "collective psychology", Jung distinguished the collective unconscious from the personal unconscious particular to each human being. The collective unconscious is also known as "a reservoir of the experiences of our species” (Wikipedia). From Jung's view point, the “personal unconscious” is based on the “collective unconscious”. It is the deep structure of one’s psychology, which is congenital and generally unanimous. If we liken these two theories to an island, consciousness would be the portion of island above the sea surface; the representation of the personal unconscious is the part of the island that is under the surface, which cannot usually be seen, but it sometimes emerges from the sea by the flow of tides; the common base of all isolated islands is the seabed under the deep sea, it may be regarded as the collective unconscious (Hsin-I Wang 2001, p. 27).
The personal unconscious is absolutely individual, including repressed desires and the content of experiences that have been forgotten. The collective unconscious does not come from personal experience, nor is it the outcome of what the person has learned, but rather it exists in every human being innately through heredity (Hsin-I Wang 2001, p. p25). In Jung’s notion of the collective unconscious, he regarded unconsciousness as a stockroom composed of the personal unconscious and collective unconscious. One part of the stockroom stored consciousness that once had been known but has been ignored or forgotten, and the other part of the stockroom inherited the unconscious experience of human history. The unconscious of experience does not exist in human consciousness, but forms part of the human history that comes from all mankind and is owned commonly by all people. This kind of experience is not easily perceived by individuals, but it can appear through the channel of dreams. Since ancient times, there have been numberless ancestors’ experiences repeated, and collected and stored in the human brain.
Just like Jung’s primitive cave in his dream, he did not depend on personal experience to reach the collective unconscious, but he could experience the collective unconscious through his dreams (Hsin-I Wang 2001, p. 31). For example, a great number of people in their sleep have experienced the feeling of being dropped from a very high place to the ground, then waking up frightened. According to the individual unconsciousness theory of Freud, this probably resulted from the intense pressure of the personal unconscious. But if we take the viewpoint of Jung’s collective unconscious, this example could support the scientific evidence that human ancestors come from the monkey family. People’s collective unconscious still remembers the frightened sense monkeys have of falling to the ground because of carelessness on trees when they were sleeping. Though the history of human being is already very far away from the monkey phase, the ‘monkey’s memory and experience’ still exist in the human unconscious, and the experience of this unconscious is possessed commonly by all mankind. Therefore, people still have and retain this experience in their subconscious mind.
Yet another example, most of us has an instinctive fear of the dark or of snakes. Referring to Jung’s theory, this is because our ancestors from the Eolithic era lived in caves and were often bitten by snakes and attacked by wild animals during the night. As a result, these human experiences have been stored in the collective unconscious. The notion behind this theory of Jung is that human instinct is closely related to the historical sense. In other words, except for the instincts of sex and violence that Freud talked about, when a person is born existent history has an impact on that person’s destiny, and brings meanings to the person’s life that combine it with human history. Hence, people are connected with the past, even receiving messages from the vast system about events in other people’s affairs.
The collective unconscious is constituted of this general eternal information which is beyond personal experience. Perhaps we can explain the phenomena of this so-called supernormal power from Jung’s perspective, such as communication through the world and universe, or the ability to know inside information or knowledge through supernatural power. If a person can communicate with his/her own unconscious, then the person will be able to connect to the collective unconscious through their personal unconscious. Since the store of collective unconscious of knowledge and experience comes from all human history, if a person can travel between personal unconscious and collective unconscious, he/she will be able to get messages from the vast system of the collective unconscious. Therefore, these people and these messages may be regarded as mystic predictors or the so called ‘sixth sense’.
Archetype
Jung believed that the personal unconscious and collective unconscious are different in terms of content, but happening continuously. Jung thought that people must able to learn to understand their own unconscious, then, they might have the ability to control the power between personal unconscious and collective unconscious. Thus, Jung proposed the theory of archetype in order to interpret the mutual relations between collective unconscious and personal unconscious.
An archetype is a generic, idealized model of a person, object or concept from which similar instances are derived, copied, patterned or emulated. In psychology, an archetype is a model of a person, personality or behaviour. The value in using archetypal characters in fiction derives from the fact that people are able to unconsciously recognize the archetype; thus, creating the motivation, behind the characters’ behaviour. In Jung’s psychological framework, the archetype is innate, providing universal prototypes for ideas and able to be used to interpret observations. A group of memories and interpretations associated with an archetype are a complex, e.g. a mother complex associated with the mother archetype (Wikipedia).
Jung believed that people have introverted and extroverted personalities simultaneously, rational and irrational reactions at the same time, and both male and female characteristics exist in the same body. This is also a concept of Yin and Yang in coordination. In addition, Jung stated that people have both conscious and unconscious thoughts at the same time. People are not merely driven by incidents from the past, but also are pushed by expectations from the future. Followings is a list of the main archetypes stated by Jung.
◎The self: In Jungian theory, the Self is one of the archetypes. It signifies the coherent whole, unified consciousness and unconscious of a person. The Self, according to Jung, is realized as the product of individuation, which in the Jungian view is the process of integrating one's personality. For Jung, the self is symbolized by the circle (especially when divided in four quadrants), the square, or the mandala: hence, the Self is the centre of the human spirit.
◎The shadow: Shadow is a personality which has the same gender in one’s dream or unconsciousness, but is opposite to the ego. Jung indicated that human nature is contradictory. If the personality has displayed the mindset of going to the east consciously; it is often the west that the mind wants to go under the unconscious personality.
◎The Anima: Anima is the unconscious or true inner self of an individual, as opposed to the persona, or outer aspect of the personality. It represents the feminine inner personality, as present in the unconscious of the male.
◎The Animus: Animus is in contrast to the anima, which represents masculine characteristics in the unconscious or inner self of the feminine individual. Jung argued that human beings have the capacity to understand further the personal unconscious and collective unconscious through analysis of the above four kinds of archetypes. Every human being could have hidden countless of archetypes, and his or her experience is closed to primitive potential memory, which may lead to excite the prototype. A complex is a main factor in forming an archetype. It is influenced by various different cultural types, living regions or national customs. For instance, in the perspective of archetype, perhaps Jesus in Christianity and the Buddha in Buddhism are figured from the same concept, yet the difference between these two Gods is merely that different nations generated different symbols of their own faith. Jung compared life to a rhizome plant. The real life hides in the rhizome deeply, it cannot be seen; the portion of life that emerges from the ground has only an ephemeral existence, it withers transiently; only the unconsciousness hidden deep inside of the heart could draw the shape of a human spirit. Thus, the archetype is like a key which has opened up and symbolized the human spirit. Jung believed that these symbolic strengths, if applied effectively, could reconcile the conflict at heart and reach a balance in the human soul. When a person’s unconsciousness and consciousness have reached a balanced state, that is to say that this person can face himself or herself totally and completely understand his or her own archetype or shadow, and the anima and the animus. Therefore, after resolving the conflict at heart, a person will be able to enter the stage of the Self that is individuation.
Jung used the term Mandala to express the perfection of Self. According to Jung, the state of individuation has to include completeness and wholeness at the same time. Thus, individuation is expressed by the perfect symbol of Mandala. When a person has reached the realm of Mandala, he or she can freely shuttle back and forth to pick up information and receive messages from the conscious and unconscious minds. Therefore, the person has become the so-called mystic predictor with the sixth sense. This collective unconscious can be interpreted as the so-called spirit or ghost. Human bodies will disappear rottenly after people die, yet the one thing that still remains in the universe is the collective unconscious.
Synchronicity
Synchronicity is the term used by Carl Jung to describe the “temporally coincident occurrences of casual events.” Jung spoke of synchronicity as an “acausal connecting principle,” i.e. a pattern of connection that cannot be explained by direct causality (wikipedia). For example we often have a kind of feeling that when a real incident occurs in the real world, we somehow know that the incident seems to have appeared in our dream some time ago. Or we dreamed about a relative or a friend whom we have not seen for a long time, then received the news that this person has passed away after a few days of our having the dream.
Synchronicity is an explanatory principle. According to its creator, Carl Jung, synchronicity can be explained as “meaningful coincidences,” such as a beetle flying into a room while a patient was describing a dream about a scarab. The scarab is an Egyptian symbol of rebirth, noted by Jung. Therefore, the propitious moment of the flying beetle indicated that the transcendental meaning of both the scarab in the dream and the insect in the room was that the patient needed to be liberated from her excessive rationalism. Jung’s notion of synchronicity is that there is an acausal principle that links events and gives them a similar meaning by their coincidence in time rather than sequentially. He claimed that there is a synchrony between the mind and the phenomenal world of perception (The skeptics dictionary).
Jung’s theory of synchronicity differs from coincidence in that it implies not just a happenstance, but an underlying pattern or dynamic that is being expressed through meaningful relationships or events. It was a principle that Jung felt encompassed his concepts of archetypes and the collective unconscious, in that it was a descriptive of a governing dynamic that underlay the whole of human experience and history — in their social, emotional, psychological, and spiritual settings. Jung believed that many experiences perceived as coincidences were due not merely to chance; he suggested instead that they were the manifestation of parallel events or circumstances which reflected this governing dynamic (wikipedia).
In the book Synchronicity: an acausal principle, Jung offered many examples to illustrate meaningful coincidences. One was a fish incident dated on 1st April 1949. On that day, things that happened around him and people who he came across were somehow all related to the topic of fish. According to Jung’s note, on that particular day, he had fish for lunch, and at the same time his friends talked to him about fish. Also, he was thinking about one of his male patients who had not come to see him for almost a year. But, very interestingly and coincidentally, this male patient appeared and came to talk to him about his dream, which was about fishes and lakes. Therefore, Jung believed that this must be a case of meaningful coincidence which cannot be mere chance. We could assume that events in general are related to one another; that is, on one hand as causal chains, and on the other hand by a kind of meaningful cross-connection (C. G. Jung 1972, pp. 14-16).
According to Fu Ya Shu in his book titled “The culture of prayer in the ancient China: The initial notion of spirit was born on the basis of the understanding of death” He indicated that a grave from the Old Stone Age, located on a mountain top in Zhoukoudian near Beijing, contained some sprayed red iron powders around the dead body. This grave was regarded as evidence of the notion of existent spirit in ancient times. However, the phenomena of utilizing the symbol of blood or of fire and the burial of articles were not only found in ancient China. It has happened in everywhere around the world, such as the Sarlat village in the middle part of Dordogne in France; Two small islands close to Morbihan in France; Brno in Czechoslovakia; a village in the south of Wales in UK; a cave in Kenya in Africa, and Lake Mungo in New South Wales in Australia. This kind of social custom existed in different regions and different nations, but it could cross over the restriction of space-time to reach at the same notion of human spirit. The notion of “Cultural dissemination” and the standard of cause and effect rule are both inadequate to interpret this phenomenon. The only explanation is the phenomenon of synchronicity (Long Yan, pp. 6-7).
These phenomena do not have any contact with each other and yet they can get the same experience or information from each other, this can be explained through the perspective of synchronicity. Regarding the origin of these phenomena, they can be interpreted in terms of the notion of the collective unconscious. Due to the existence of collective unconscious, time and space can restore human experiences from the past. We could refer to the aspect of mysticism as human soul and ghost, yet it also refers to a kind of invisible collective unconscious in terms of psychological perspective. According to the theory of synchronicity, everything in the universe is parallel in space and time, and yet it is believed that there are certain orders in the existence of things. For some unexplained reasons, our personal unconscious can come close to or connect with the collective unconscious at times. As a result phenomena will travel through the time and space, and somehow will create two or more incidents related to each other. That is the reason that we have mixed phenomena caused by the blurred boundary between the spiritual and the real world. For example, sometimes we meet people or see scenes in real life which have appeared in our dreams, or a certain friend who always runs into you in different places coincidentally. All these happenings are not merely acausal coincidences but also meaningful coincidences.
Jung claimed that once a person can communicate between his or her conscious and unconscious minds, the person will be able to travel to the personal unconscious, seeking for some answers for him/herself. Besides, the person also can go to the collective unconscious through the personal unconscious; that is how the super energy is being generated and how people can predict the future and know the past. Nevertheless, due to the time, the place and the ethnic group the person was born in, everyone has got their own type of personal unconscious. Therefore, everyone’s personal unconscious is connected with the collective unconscious at different points. The personal unconscious includes the memories and experiences that have been forgotten or hidden from the conscious mind, which makes the unconscious more complicated.
We can understand some of the complex aspects of the unconscious with the help of another person by deploying some objects to connect the other person and ourselves. The two people’s unconscious minds will be able to connect through the physical object, such as tarot cards and the drawing of lots. We can see the rationality of prediction from Jung’s theory of collective unconscious and the theory of synchronicity, especially the synchronic incidents shown in Jung’s book, and the collecting of coincidence events by Paul Kammerer in his book “The law of the series”. All these examples could be interpreted as: Forms of existing things and turns of events in the universe have a profound harmonious dynamic net, which associate people with the Universe. Paul Kammerer postulates that all events are connected by waves of Seriality. These forces cause what we perceive as just the peaks, i.e. groupings and coincidences (Wikipedia). As such, when we draw lots, or pick up one tarot card, somehow we can retrieve message from our unconscious through the connection of these prediction instruments.
Whether from the aspect of Jung’s psychology or the viewpoint of numerology, there is one thing that applicable to both: They all connect to unconsciousness through physical objects or events, beyond the communication between consciousness and unconscious, and people have the capacity and possibility to understand themselves better from the past to the future. “Concentration” is the main factor that affects the accuracy of the prediction and the perspective of numerology. The purpose of conducting the ritual before starting the prediction is to help seekers concentrate on their question (Xie Da Hui 2006). According to my interviews with the 12 fortune-tellers, this is what they called “a sincere heart influenced by the spiritual world”.
2-2 The I Ching and binary code
This passage attempts to justify the relation between the hexagrams of the I Ching and computer binary code by studying Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s invention of binary arithmetic, together with Shao Yong’s number system of the I Ching. The original I Ching was invented by legendary Chinese ancient philosophers; it started spreading its influence in western philosophy in the 16th century. To date, have been a great number of scholars researching into the philosophic implication of the I Ching and its rational possibilities of prediction in terms of scientific laws. Research into the contemporary I Ching can be divided into six branches: 1). The history of the I Ching, 2).The interpretation of the hexagrams of the I Ching, 3). The philosophy and the dialectic of the I Ching, 4). The relation between the I Ching and Chinese characters, Chinese history, Chinese philosophy, Chinese medical science, astronomy, agriculture etc., 5). The impact on western society and science through the I Ching, 6). The manner of prediction of the I Ching (Li jiang Zuo 1999, pp. 3-4). The focal point of this passage is to indicate the relation between the I Ching and modern science, paralleling with a study of the analogy between Shao Yong’s number permutation of hexagrams of the I Ching and Leibniz’s binary arithmetic, thus attempting to justify the rationality of prediction in using computers.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was a synthesizer of ideas, a deep religious thinker and an avid Sinophile. Leibniz sought a characteristica universalis, or universal language, that would assist his quest to order all human knowledge (Frank J. Swetz 2003a, p. 276; Franklin Perkins 2004a, p. ix). Leibniz had a lifelong interest in Chinese culture, (E. J. Aiton & Eikoh shimao 1981, p. 71), he was interested in Neo Confucianism and the relation between Chinese Natural theology and the Creation of Christianity, he published in 1697, with a second edition in 1699, under the title Noissima Sience. In the preface of this book Leibniz developed his theme of a universal culture, claiming that the Chinese and European civilizations were complementary, the Chinese excelling in ethics, politics and natural theology, the Europeans in speculative philosophy and the natural sciences (E. J. Aiton & Eikoh shimao 1981, p. 72). Not withstanding the differences between eastern and western societies, there are a lot of scholars making great efforts to probe into the correspondence between binary arithmetic and the hexagrams of the I Ching.
The French Jesuit missionary Joachim Bouvet (1656-1730) was the one who discovered the correspondence between the I Ching and Leibniz' binary system and who first theorized that the Diagram was a remnant of forgotten ancient Chinese science (James A. Ryan 1996a, p. 61). Bouvet had strong background knowledge of mathematics; he first entered China in 1688 and remained for nine years. Bouvet there read the first edition of Noissima. While he was in Paris on furlough from his Chinese Mission, he wrote to Leibniz on October 18 1697 and expressed his admiration for the publication and shared some “recent China news” (Frank J. Swetz 2003a, p. 283), which began the correspondence between Leibniz and Bouvet. When Leibniz developed his binary arithmetic, a system based only on zero and one, he realized that it provided an illustration of how God could create all things out of unity and nothingness. Thus he sent a medallion inscribed with numbers in his binary system to Duke Rudolph of Brunswick in 1697, writing:
“After all, one of the high points of the Christian faith, which agrees least with the philosophers and is not easy to impart to pagans, is the creation ex nihilo through God's almighty power. Now one can say that nothing in the world can better present and demonstrate [this power] than the origin of numbers, as it is represented here through the simple and unadorned presentation of One and Zero”. (Julia Ching & Willard Oxtoby 1992, p. 72).
This passage attempts to justify the relation between the hexagrams of the I Ching and computer binary code by studying Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s invention of binary arithmetic, together with Shao Yong’s number system of the I Ching. The original I Ching was invented by legendary Chinese ancient philosophers; it started spreading its influence in western philosophy in the 16th century. To date, have been a great number of scholars researching into the philosophic implication of the I Ching and its rational possibilities of prediction in terms of scientific laws. Research into the contemporary I Ching can be divided into six branches: 1). The history of the I Ching, 2).The interpretation of the hexagrams of the I Ching, 3). The philosophy and the dialectic of the I Ching, 4). The relation between the I Ching and Chinese characters, Chinese history, Chinese philosophy, Chinese medical science, astronomy, agriculture etc., 5). The impact on western society and science through the I Ching, 6). The manner of prediction of the I Ching (Li jiang Zuo 1999, pp. 3-4). The focal point of this passage is to indicate the relation between the I Ching and modern science, paralleling with a study of the analogy between Shao Yong’s number permutation of hexagrams of the I Ching and Leibniz’s binary arithmetic, thus attempting to justify the rationality of prediction in using computers.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was a synthesizer of ideas, a deep religious thinker and an avid Sinophile. Leibniz sought a characteristica universalis, or universal language, that would assist his quest to order all human knowledge (Frank J. Swetz 2003a, p. 276; Franklin Perkins 2004a, p. ix). Leibniz had a lifelong interest in Chinese culture, (E. J. Aiton & Eikoh shimao 1981, p. 71), he was interested in Neo Confucianism and the relation between Chinese Natural theology and the Creation of Christianity, he published in 1697, with a second edition in 1699, under the title Noissima Sience. In the preface of this book Leibniz developed his theme of a universal culture, claiming that the Chinese and European civilizations were complementary, the Chinese excelling in ethics, politics and natural theology, the Europeans in speculative philosophy and the natural sciences (E. J. Aiton & Eikoh shimao 1981, p. 72). Not withstanding the differences between eastern and western societies, there are a lot of scholars making great efforts to probe into the correspondence between binary arithmetic and the hexagrams of the I Ching.
The French Jesuit missionary Joachim Bouvet (1656-1730) was the one who discovered the correspondence between the I Ching and Leibniz' binary system and who first theorized that the Diagram was a remnant of forgotten ancient Chinese science (James A. Ryan 1996a, p. 61). Bouvet had strong background knowledge of mathematics; he first entered China in 1688 and remained for nine years. Bouvet there read the first edition of Noissima. While he was in Paris on furlough from his Chinese Mission, he wrote to Leibniz on October 18 1697 and expressed his admiration for the publication and shared some “recent China news” (Frank J. Swetz 2003a, p. 283), which began the correspondence between Leibniz and Bouvet. When Leibniz developed his binary arithmetic, a system based only on zero and one, he realized that it provided an illustration of how God could create all things out of unity and nothingness. Thus he sent a medallion inscribed with numbers in his binary system to Duke Rudolph of Brunswick in 1697, writing:
“After all, one of the high points of the Christian faith, which agrees least with the philosophers and is not easy to impart to pagans, is the creation ex nihilo through God's almighty power. Now one can say that nothing in the world can better present and demonstrate [this power] than the origin of numbers, as it is represented here through the simple and unadorned presentation of One and Zero”. (Julia Ching & Willard Oxtoby 1992, p. 72).
At the same time of Leibniz’s submission of that paper, Bouvet was working on the I Ching, convinced that it held some secret knowledge because of its connection to Fohi’s eight diagrams and the Biblical (Franklin Perkins 2004a, p. 116). In a 1701 letter, Leibniz explained the binary system (shown in Figure 2-1) to Bouvet in some detail. In a response, Bouvet demonstrated the following correspondence to Leibniz. Taking broken lines to be equivalent to zeros and solid lines to be equivalent to ones, the first hexagram at the bottom of the Diagram seems to denote zero as the binary system would. If one overlooks the fact (of which neither Bouvet nor Leibniz was aware) that the Chinese read the hexagram lines from the bottom up, rather than from the top down, the rest of the binary numbers proceed in the Diagram as follows. Reading counter clockwise, , and so forth. As Leibniz indicates, the binary system can be seen starting at the bottom of the circle, proceeding counter clockwise to the top and then again clockwise from the bottom to the top. The double geometric progression can be discerned in the Diagram as well as in Leibniz' binary system. That is, the broken lines (yin) are gradually filled in (replaced with unbroken yang lines) from the outside to the inside. Beginning at the bottom and moving counter clockwise, the first hexagram has five innermost broken lines; the next two hexagrams have four innermost broken lines ;the next four have three innermost broken lines; the next eight have two; and the next sixteen have one. A similar pattern continues from the bottom clockwise to the top (James A. Ryan 1996a, p. 61).
The demonstration for the assumption that internet and computers may be equal to the predictive power which I have brought out in the previous chapter has emerged from the discussion of all the possibilities between binary arithmetic and the hexagrams of the I Ching indicated in above passages. However, the computer is the basic tool of communication for the Internet, and yet the binary code is the basic structure of computers, that is to say: a basis of scientific terms does exist in the relation between the I Ching and computers. According to Gorai Kinzo: we see Leibniz's stroke of genius in the idea of expressing all numbers using zeros and ones. The idea of expressing the entire universe by two symbols, yin and yang, in the I Ching, also needed a flash of genius. The two geniuses contacted and recognized each other through a universal and intuitive method of mathematics, and shook hands. Leibniz brought the two civilizations closer. His binary arithmetic and the I Ching were two hands symbolizing a meeting of the eastern and western civilizations (E. J. Aiton & Eikoh shimao 1981, p. 76). Zero and one form a universal language for the dynamic world, and a number is thus a basic metaphysical figure, as it were, and arithmetic is a kind of static of the universe by which the powers of things are discovered (James A. Ryan 1996a, p. 64). Thus, we may say that the power of the computer binary code equals the universal language, and yet the computer plus the internet could be the powerful other dynamic world, which mankind can not yet explain in scientific terms.
2-3 The mind and machines
The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) program at Princeton University, is internationally renowned for its extensive study of the influence of the mind on physical reality. The purpose of the program, established in 1979 by Professor Robert G. Jahn and John C. Valentino, over its more then a quarter-century of activity is a controversial issue; PEAR has completed its agenda of basic research and closed its physical facilities at the end of February 2007.
PEAR has focused on two major areas of study: anomalous human/machine interaction (MMI), which addresses the effects of consciousness on random physical systems and processes; together with remote perceptions, wherein people attempt to enquire about distant locations and events. Using random event generators (REG), that is, computers that spew random output, and the PEAR lab participants have focused their intent on controlling machines’ output. The enormous databases produced by PEAR provide clear evidence that human thought and emotion can produce measurable influence on physical reality (Robert G. Jahn & Brenda J. Dunne 2007).
According to the experimental results provided by PEAR, there is a strong correlation between output distribution by means of a variety of random binary process and the pre-stated intention of human operators. There is very little that the researchers understand about the phenomenon, but they do know that results aren't affected by distance or time. Participants, for example, can have the same effect on a machine from outside the room or across the country. They can also have the same effect if they have the intention before the REG is turned on or even if they read a book or listen to music while the machine is running. Moreover, environmental conditions, such as room temperature and location distance between participant and machines, also do not matter, but the participant’s mood and attitude do. It helps, for example, if the participant believes he or she can affect the machine. Resonance with the machine is another important factor; PEAR allows their deployment in a variety of group environments, such as ritual ceremonies, artistic performances, sporting events, business meetings, diagnostic and therapeutic counselling, etc. From such field applications, it appears that those venues that engender strong collective resonance among the participants show larger deviations of REG output sequences from chance expectations than those generated in more pragmatic or mundane assemblies. Furthermore, long-term experimental results showed that gender affects the influence of the REG output. Men tend to get results that match their intent, although the degree of the effect is often small. Women tend to get a bigger effect, but not necessarily the one they intend. For example, they might intend to direct balls in the random cascade machine to fall to the left, but they fall to the right instead. Results are also greater if a male and female work together, but same-sex pairs produce no significant results. Pairs of the opposite sex who are romantically involved produce the best results (Kim Zetter 2005; Robert G. Jahn & Brenda J. Dunne 2005).
The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) program at Princeton University, is internationally renowned for its extensive study of the influence of the mind on physical reality. The purpose of the program, established in 1979 by Professor Robert G. Jahn and John C. Valentino, over its more then a quarter-century of activity is a controversial issue; PEAR has completed its agenda of basic research and closed its physical facilities at the end of February 2007.
PEAR has focused on two major areas of study: anomalous human/machine interaction (MMI), which addresses the effects of consciousness on random physical systems and processes; together with remote perceptions, wherein people attempt to enquire about distant locations and events. Using random event generators (REG), that is, computers that spew random output, and the PEAR lab participants have focused their intent on controlling machines’ output. The enormous databases produced by PEAR provide clear evidence that human thought and emotion can produce measurable influence on physical reality (Robert G. Jahn & Brenda J. Dunne 2007).
According to the experimental results provided by PEAR, there is a strong correlation between output distribution by means of a variety of random binary process and the pre-stated intention of human operators. There is very little that the researchers understand about the phenomenon, but they do know that results aren't affected by distance or time. Participants, for example, can have the same effect on a machine from outside the room or across the country. They can also have the same effect if they have the intention before the REG is turned on or even if they read a book or listen to music while the machine is running. Moreover, environmental conditions, such as room temperature and location distance between participant and machines, also do not matter, but the participant’s mood and attitude do. It helps, for example, if the participant believes he or she can affect the machine. Resonance with the machine is another important factor; PEAR allows their deployment in a variety of group environments, such as ritual ceremonies, artistic performances, sporting events, business meetings, diagnostic and therapeutic counselling, etc. From such field applications, it appears that those venues that engender strong collective resonance among the participants show larger deviations of REG output sequences from chance expectations than those generated in more pragmatic or mundane assemblies. Furthermore, long-term experimental results showed that gender affects the influence of the REG output. Men tend to get results that match their intent, although the degree of the effect is often small. Women tend to get a bigger effect, but not necessarily the one they intend. For example, they might intend to direct balls in the random cascade machine to fall to the left, but they fall to the right instead. Results are also greater if a male and female work together, but same-sex pairs produce no significant results. Pairs of the opposite sex who are romantically involved produce the best results (Kim Zetter 2005; Robert G. Jahn & Brenda J. Dunne 2005).
In a nutshell, what the PEAR people claim to have discovered is a new force in nature, perhaps the elusive “fifth force.” And that force is, well, me and you, and everyone else. All of us, it seems, have the ability to influence physical events with our thoughts. That is, we can “will thing” things to happen the way we would like them to by simply concentrating (Matt Neuman 1998, p. 1). But experiments in the PEAR lab have shown that mind can affect about 1 in every 10,000 random events, that is too small an effect to make anyone a killing in the gambling casinos. Although the effect is small, Jahn and Dunne have conducted so many experiments that they believe their data have been verified, when people concentrate together. Jahn and Dunne say that collective will affects the random process even more (Shankar Vedantam).
In the PEAR lab experiment, participants were selected randomly, especially without any training on concentration exercise; their purpose was to demonstrate the possibility of mentally affecting material/physics from every human being. However, the effects gained were small, which may be attributed to the non training process. Otto Scharmer a professor from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, suggests that all human and social entities have a variety of sources and attention fields they can operate from, and that the crises of our time relate to not being aware and not fully actualizing this variety of sources and qualities of attention. Otto Scharmer calls this THEORY U, named for the shape of the journey it takes us on (Otto Scharmer 2005). Otto Scharmer indicated: At the heart (or the bottom) of Theory U lies the following assumption: that each of us isn’t one but two. Each and every human being or social entity is two. One is the person that we have become through the journey of the past. That’s the one we know well. The other one is the person that we could become through our journey toward the future—it’s our highest future possibility. That one isn’t as apparent as the first person is. It’s a dormant possibility that is waiting for us (Otto Scharmer 2005).
In the PEAR lab experiment, participants were selected randomly, especially without any training on concentration exercise; their purpose was to demonstrate the possibility of mentally affecting material/physics from every human being. However, the effects gained were small, which may be attributed to the non training process. Otto Scharmer a professor from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, suggests that all human and social entities have a variety of sources and attention fields they can operate from, and that the crises of our time relate to not being aware and not fully actualizing this variety of sources and qualities of attention. Otto Scharmer calls this THEORY U, named for the shape of the journey it takes us on (Otto Scharmer 2005). Otto Scharmer indicated: At the heart (or the bottom) of Theory U lies the following assumption: that each of us isn’t one but two. Each and every human being or social entity is two. One is the person that we have become through the journey of the past. That’s the one we know well. The other one is the person that we could become through our journey toward the future—it’s our highest future possibility. That one isn’t as apparent as the first person is. It’s a dormant possibility that is waiting for us (Otto Scharmer 2005).
The Theory U is the process that helps us to learn about ourselves from the future. If we knew the domination of the future self, our present situation would have been different from the one we now live in. Otto Scharmer coined this process of learning as Presencing, a term that blends the two words “presence” and “sensing”; it means to sense and bring into the present one’s highest future potential- the future that depends on us to bring it into being (Otto Scharmer 2005).Supposing the Theory U works for our learning ability, it may be able to answer the small effects of the PEAR lab’s experiment; since they did not train participants in any specific manner for doing concentration.
Based on the contention of PEAR, the existence of correlation between mind and machine (binary) is positive. Hence, this contention is applicable on the hypothesis of my research: The internet and computers may be equal to the mysterious power, which can predict mankind’s future, afterward utilizing net art creation to present this notion, specifically utilizing the form of collaborative creation. Supposing the correlation of MMI does exist, and we do believe it, the question is still, how to explain its operation? Is it really the power of nature? Does every one of us have paranormal abilities? To date, notwithstanding that some researchers have noticed that this kind of nature force seems to be there in our real life, yet not one can interpret the phenomenon in scientific terms. The controversial phenomenon of MMI is identical with the Chinese prediction manner of the I Ching. People know about casting trigrams and hexagrams in order to interpret the message of people’s doubt, albeit unable to explain the operation’s inner possibilities. According to my interviewers, who are reputable fortune-tellers, the concentrated mind has a strong faith in efficacious prediction are the mind factors that effect accurate prediction (Chen Yu Wen 2006; Lin Jin Zhu 2006; Xie Da Hui 2006; Zho Jin Liang 2006). That is to say: The factor of concentrated mind applies to both fortune-telling and experiments of PEAR. The power of human mind does exist, but in such a way that we can not explain it in scientific terms. Our science, however, is based upon the principle of causality, and causality is considered to be an axiomatic truth. But a great change in our standpoint is now emerging. What Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason failed to do, is being accomplished by modern physics. The axioms of causality are being shaken to their foundations: we know now that what we term natural laws are merely statistical truths and thus must necessarily allow for exceptions (C.G. Jung 1968, p. xxii).
2-4 Case studies
I have selected certain projects to be my study cases based on their issues, which are similar or relevant to my hypothesis: that the internet and computers may be utilized to perform as a fortune-telling’s machine. I then utilized net art creation powers to present this notion, with particular focus on the extension of collaborative creation on the internet. In order to obtain a broad idea with precise intention, I am looking at two perspectives from each case study; these are Concept and Structure. Then I will analyse and integrate these two perspectives into a conclusion.
◆Concept: The study of a central idea for each project, understanding the meaning or implication that is embodied in the project.
◆Structure: The interrelation or arrangement of parts in an entity; the way in which parts are arranged or put together to form a whole, which is precisely how the project works.
◆Conclusion: Analysing the concept and structure of each project, compounding and integrating from the perspective of my creative project, finding out the features and advantages of each project together with its similarity to my creative project.
Based on the contention of PEAR, the existence of correlation between mind and machine (binary) is positive. Hence, this contention is applicable on the hypothesis of my research: The internet and computers may be equal to the mysterious power, which can predict mankind’s future, afterward utilizing net art creation to present this notion, specifically utilizing the form of collaborative creation. Supposing the correlation of MMI does exist, and we do believe it, the question is still, how to explain its operation? Is it really the power of nature? Does every one of us have paranormal abilities? To date, notwithstanding that some researchers have noticed that this kind of nature force seems to be there in our real life, yet not one can interpret the phenomenon in scientific terms. The controversial phenomenon of MMI is identical with the Chinese prediction manner of the I Ching. People know about casting trigrams and hexagrams in order to interpret the message of people’s doubt, albeit unable to explain the operation’s inner possibilities. According to my interviewers, who are reputable fortune-tellers, the concentrated mind has a strong faith in efficacious prediction are the mind factors that effect accurate prediction (Chen Yu Wen 2006; Lin Jin Zhu 2006; Xie Da Hui 2006; Zho Jin Liang 2006). That is to say: The factor of concentrated mind applies to both fortune-telling and experiments of PEAR. The power of human mind does exist, but in such a way that we can not explain it in scientific terms. Our science, however, is based upon the principle of causality, and causality is considered to be an axiomatic truth. But a great change in our standpoint is now emerging. What Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason failed to do, is being accomplished by modern physics. The axioms of causality are being shaken to their foundations: we know now that what we term natural laws are merely statistical truths and thus must necessarily allow for exceptions (C.G. Jung 1968, p. xxii).
2-4 Case studies
I have selected certain projects to be my study cases based on their issues, which are similar or relevant to my hypothesis: that the internet and computers may be utilized to perform as a fortune-telling’s machine. I then utilized net art creation powers to present this notion, with particular focus on the extension of collaborative creation on the internet. In order to obtain a broad idea with precise intention, I am looking at two perspectives from each case study; these are Concept and Structure. Then I will analyse and integrate these two perspectives into a conclusion.
◆Concept: The study of a central idea for each project, understanding the meaning or implication that is embodied in the project.
◆Structure: The interrelation or arrangement of parts in an entity; the way in which parts are arranged or put together to form a whole, which is precisely how the project works.
◆Conclusion: Analysing the concept and structure of each project, compounding and integrating from the perspective of my creative project, finding out the features and advantages of each project together with its similarity to my creative project.
(A).Project title: Agent Ruby, by Lynn Hershman Leesonhttp://agentruby.net
◆Concept: “Agent Ruby” transferred users’ interaction into the reference value of an artwork. “Agent Ruby” created by AI (Artificial Intelligence) explores the relationship between human beings and computer virtual beings and an impact form the growing up of the spontaneous reproduction of the fictitious biological on mankind.
◆Structure: The display of “Agent Ruby” is very simple. There is only one virtual agent, called Ruby, who is an emotional lady agent. As the “communicating” frequency increases, Ruby learns more methods and techniques of human’s natural language and memorizes the dialogue contents and personality of every communicating person. So, Ruby becomes more human-like and even has different emotions changing with Internet speed. This characteristic of learning real human intelligence put Ruby’s role somewhere between the virtual and the real world. There are four stages in the design of “Agent Ruby”: the first is word interaction on the internet, the second is allowing users to download Ruby to PC or PDA, and to interact more directly with Ruby; the third allows users to communicate with Ruby by voice, so Ruby begins to have different emotions; the fourth is via GPS induction and voice distinction to make the communication between Ruby and users more human-like.
◆Conclusion: “Agent Ruby” was born in the digital world, through the internet media she communicates with human beings on broad topics, at the same time learning the emotional reactions and delicate deliberate thoughts of human beings. Owing to its intelligent learning system of human behaviour, “Agent Ruby” has generated a kind of thought reaction response that surpasses its computer digital system. Thus, when users converse with “Agent Ruby” they experience and travel across the boundary between actual and virtual worlds. The space between virtual and actual is the significant state that I am engaging with in my creative project. However, I understand that the audience is supposed to "converse" on the Internet, not with an AI chatbot. Thus, making my program too advanced will actually defeat the purpose.
◆Structure: The display of “Agent Ruby” is very simple. There is only one virtual agent, called Ruby, who is an emotional lady agent. As the “communicating” frequency increases, Ruby learns more methods and techniques of human’s natural language and memorizes the dialogue contents and personality of every communicating person. So, Ruby becomes more human-like and even has different emotions changing with Internet speed. This characteristic of learning real human intelligence put Ruby’s role somewhere between the virtual and the real world. There are four stages in the design of “Agent Ruby”: the first is word interaction on the internet, the second is allowing users to download Ruby to PC or PDA, and to interact more directly with Ruby; the third allows users to communicate with Ruby by voice, so Ruby begins to have different emotions; the fourth is via GPS induction and voice distinction to make the communication between Ruby and users more human-like.
◆Conclusion: “Agent Ruby” was born in the digital world, through the internet media she communicates with human beings on broad topics, at the same time learning the emotional reactions and delicate deliberate thoughts of human beings. Owing to its intelligent learning system of human behaviour, “Agent Ruby” has generated a kind of thought reaction response that surpasses its computer digital system. Thus, when users converse with “Agent Ruby” they experience and travel across the boundary between actual and virtual worlds. The space between virtual and actual is the significant state that I am engaging with in my creative project. However, I understand that the audience is supposed to "converse" on the Internet, not with an AI chatbot. Thus, making my program too advanced will actually defeat the purpose.
(B).Project title: From the great beyond, by Fang yu Linhttp://a.parsons.edu/~linf/projects/beyond/
◆Concept: “From the great beyond” utilizes the huge resources characteristic of the Internet, probing into the essence of the Internet itself. In his previous interview, Fang Yu Lin indicated that: if the internet is an individual, it should have individual characteristics, so I can talk to it, and it can reply to me as well. The significant discussion about this project is whether the Internet is really borderless. The possibilities of the Internet seem to go beyond the range that mankind can understand despite the fact that it is constructed by human beings. An audience who visits “From the great beyond”, passes the interface of the typewriter, attempting to pierce the value of human existence and discover the secret of human nature from the Internet. Thus, as someone inquires into the puzzlement of emotions, someone also probes into the idea of God, and even more, someone has a fantastic idea to turn a dog into a cat. These messages seem more fascinating than our actual mundane life, yet the strength of the Internet seems to exceed the range that mankind has been able to understand so far; perhaps this is the essence of the internet that Fang yu Lin intends to represent for his audiences.
◆Structure: Fang Yu Lin combines the outdated typewriter with the modern host computer, through the basic service of an Internet search engine, which conveys the audience’s signal from the outdated typewriter to the Internet in order to find relevant materials. The final stage of its procedure is to print out the relevant findings in text or ASCII format through an outdated printer. This project utilizes a simple technical comparison between the finding resource and its keyword in the Google search engine. It searches for a meaningful sentence from the Internet to respond to audiences’ input, and prints them out as if the message were from the Internet. Owing to the queer questions that audiences have input, the Internet has answered in a very paradoxical way, which reinforces the sense of the Internet as having a complicated and confusing nature.
◆Conclusion: According to Fang Yu Lin’s observation from the exhibition, it caused the audience's strong curiosity and interest because the paradoxical message from the Internet returns the audiences’ input. Many audiences regard it as a fortune-teller, and ask it various kinds of weird questions. Thus it has strengthened the characteristic of the internet which Fang Yu Lin intended to represent. However, this so called “the characteristics of the Internet” is exactly the issue that I attempt to discover and demonstrate in my research that the Internet and computers have embedded a magical strength, yet we can only see the surface of its component powers through its operations. But we can not see whether the Internet has generated a kind of special operation function due to the participation of human beings, and that function of operation cannot be explained in scientific terms. It is as if the Internet has the ability of knowing the future for human beings.
◆Structure: Fang Yu Lin combines the outdated typewriter with the modern host computer, through the basic service of an Internet search engine, which conveys the audience’s signal from the outdated typewriter to the Internet in order to find relevant materials. The final stage of its procedure is to print out the relevant findings in text or ASCII format through an outdated printer. This project utilizes a simple technical comparison between the finding resource and its keyword in the Google search engine. It searches for a meaningful sentence from the Internet to respond to audiences’ input, and prints them out as if the message were from the Internet. Owing to the queer questions that audiences have input, the Internet has answered in a very paradoxical way, which reinforces the sense of the Internet as having a complicated and confusing nature.
◆Conclusion: According to Fang Yu Lin’s observation from the exhibition, it caused the audience's strong curiosity and interest because the paradoxical message from the Internet returns the audiences’ input. Many audiences regard it as a fortune-teller, and ask it various kinds of weird questions. Thus it has strengthened the characteristic of the internet which Fang Yu Lin intended to represent. However, this so called “the characteristics of the Internet” is exactly the issue that I attempt to discover and demonstrate in my research that the Internet and computers have embedded a magical strength, yet we can only see the surface of its component powers through its operations. But we can not see whether the Internet has generated a kind of special operation function due to the participation of human beings, and that function of operation cannot be explained in scientific terms. It is as if the Internet has the ability of knowing the future for human beings.
(C).Project title: Blessed Bandwidth, by Shilpa Guptahttp://www.blessed-bandwidth.net/
◆Concept: “Blessed-bandwidth” acts as a space for visitors to reflect on religion and its role in a world that is often divided by faith. The site juxtaposes real and virtual worlds and encourages visitors to consider how these worlds might overlap and merge. Here, the user can print out a certificate of blessing, even selecting the decorative border. But this blessing is not necessarily 'real' - the artist, Gupta never deems that the blessing should be literally accepted. Gupta also does not define the act of blessing as metaphorical. So what is a blessing? Gupta suggests that the 'real' nature of the blessing is dependent on the belief and investment of the user. In this sense, the 'truth', the individual and the personal commitment, are parts of the elements unavailable for public scrutiny (Heidi Reitmaier, 2003).
◆Structure: “blessed-bandwidth” invites visitors to log on, choose a religion and get blessed. After selecting from a range of faiths, visitors can view photographs and video of the artist. With an internet cable, they can visit the relevant place of worship to be blessed by a priest or the authority figure. The website offers its users the chance to receive their own blessings online and obtain a certificate to mark the occasion. To attain a mystical experience, the user must follow these instructions. 1). Sit down. Don't lean. 2). Bend slowly forward. Concentrate. 3). Now touch your forehead to the computer screen on the spot x.' At this point, a pop-up window appears, asking 'would you like to certify this blessing?
◆Conclusion: According to Theory U, that Mind may affect machines, mentioned earlier, the attitude and faith of the participant will affect the result of their experiments. “Blessed Bandwidth” has incorporated the ritual and the religions for the user to experience the whole project. This concept of using custom and ritual is in accordance with the idea of my creative project. The main idea of “Blessed Bandwidth” is not really about an online temple, but about the behavior of how people use religion, and how the Internet may replace the function of religion in the actual world. Therefore human faith and the possibilities of the Internet are two relevant focuses for my research issues. Attempting to blend them with an artistic creation is the significant endeavour of my research.
◆Structure: “blessed-bandwidth” invites visitors to log on, choose a religion and get blessed. After selecting from a range of faiths, visitors can view photographs and video of the artist. With an internet cable, they can visit the relevant place of worship to be blessed by a priest or the authority figure. The website offers its users the chance to receive their own blessings online and obtain a certificate to mark the occasion. To attain a mystical experience, the user must follow these instructions. 1). Sit down. Don't lean. 2). Bend slowly forward. Concentrate. 3). Now touch your forehead to the computer screen on the spot x.' At this point, a pop-up window appears, asking 'would you like to certify this blessing?
◆Conclusion: According to Theory U, that Mind may affect machines, mentioned earlier, the attitude and faith of the participant will affect the result of their experiments. “Blessed Bandwidth” has incorporated the ritual and the religions for the user to experience the whole project. This concept of using custom and ritual is in accordance with the idea of my creative project. The main idea of “Blessed Bandwidth” is not really about an online temple, but about the behavior of how people use religion, and how the Internet may replace the function of religion in the actual world. Therefore human faith and the possibilities of the Internet are two relevant focuses for my research issues. Attempting to blend them with an artistic creation is the significant endeavour of my research.
(D).Project title: Ouija 2000, by Ken Goldberghttp://taylor.ieor.berkeley.edu/ouija/end.html
◆Concept: “Ouija 2000” is an on-line Ouija board with its planchette mounted on a robotic arm. It answers a slate of questions pertaining to users’ lives in the next millennium. Goldberg created “Ouija 2000” as a critique of conventional notions of contemporary spirituality. He presents a pseudo-history of the Ouija board, claiming that, “although their workings and origins remain shrouded in mystery, “talking boards” are the world's oldest telecommunications devices.” In this project, Goldberg couples epistemology with another esoteric source: mysticism.
◆Structure: “Ouija 2000” is open 24 hours a day, and users come together via the Internet to “play” with up to 20 users at a time. Before entering “Ouija 2000”, users have to follow all the instructions made up by the artist, such as moving your keyboard away, placing your mouse and mousepad in front of the screen, turning off the lights in your room or office, etc. Once users have entered into “Ouija 2000”, each remote player places both hands on his or her mouse. Minute mouse movements are detected and transmitted back to a central computer in Goldberg’s Berkeley laboratory. The computer combines the inputs and moves a telerobotic arm to respond. Thus, the answers to questions will appear as if by “magic” or “mystical intervention”, as no single user can control what the answers will be.
◆Conclusion: “Ouija 2000” draws on both special characteristic of the Internet medium: virtual reality and collective interaction, making up a fictitious Ouija board story so as to attain identification from its users. “Ouija 2000” utilizes the robotic arm as the terminal movement control station in the laboratory, and it involves the numerous users who operate in step with each other through the internet, resulting in an uncanny movement. Thus the mysterious strength of the Ouija board seems to become truth without rhyme or reason. The relevance of “Ouija 2000” to my research is: The mysterious net and the ritual before entering the main web page, includes collective unconscious, synchronicity, and the unique fusion of the Internet’s nature in both the real and the virtual world. However, in my creative research, I perform on the structure of the I Ching, which was created collectively by ancient Chinese philosophers many centuries ago. The aim of my research is to combine the I Ching with unique features of the Internet, to bring out the possibilities of collaboration between the internet and human beings to answer our uncertainties about our future.
◆Structure: “Ouija 2000” is open 24 hours a day, and users come together via the Internet to “play” with up to 20 users at a time. Before entering “Ouija 2000”, users have to follow all the instructions made up by the artist, such as moving your keyboard away, placing your mouse and mousepad in front of the screen, turning off the lights in your room or office, etc. Once users have entered into “Ouija 2000”, each remote player places both hands on his or her mouse. Minute mouse movements are detected and transmitted back to a central computer in Goldberg’s Berkeley laboratory. The computer combines the inputs and moves a telerobotic arm to respond. Thus, the answers to questions will appear as if by “magic” or “mystical intervention”, as no single user can control what the answers will be.
◆Conclusion: “Ouija 2000” draws on both special characteristic of the Internet medium: virtual reality and collective interaction, making up a fictitious Ouija board story so as to attain identification from its users. “Ouija 2000” utilizes the robotic arm as the terminal movement control station in the laboratory, and it involves the numerous users who operate in step with each other through the internet, resulting in an uncanny movement. Thus the mysterious strength of the Ouija board seems to become truth without rhyme or reason. The relevance of “Ouija 2000” to my research is: The mysterious net and the ritual before entering the main web page, includes collective unconscious, synchronicity, and the unique fusion of the Internet’s nature in both the real and the virtual world. However, in my creative research, I perform on the structure of the I Ching, which was created collectively by ancient Chinese philosophers many centuries ago. The aim of my research is to combine the I Ching with unique features of the Internet, to bring out the possibilities of collaboration between the internet and human beings to answer our uncertainties about our future.
(E)Project title: Public Mood Ring by Will Pappenheimerhttp://www.publicmoodring.thruhere.net/
◆Concept: “Public Mood Ring” recorded the interaction between Internet users all over the world on this website, and sent this data back to an exhibition at the San Jose Museum, USA, to let the museum reflect internet users’ interaction immediately, Will Pappenheimer discusses the spatial concept moving between the virtual net and the actual world. According to the artist, the idea of “Public Mood Ring” comes from the notion of the mood ring: the colour of a mood ring changes with the mood and temperature of the ring wearer, so the colour symbol can signify the wearer’s mood. Here the “Public Mood Ring” explains the sum of new “user” colours, and the virtual sum is the content of the exhibition in the museum.
◆Structure: When users enter the website, the system links to Yahoo’s global news web automatically and shows in turn recent news titles and photos in the upper-left-hand corner of the screen. Users can draw the news titles to the analysis platform to the right of the screen to read detailed news content. Once a user chooses a news item, he can set a cultural color for his mood, including Islamic- Sufi, Cherokee, Western Biblical, Zulu Beadwork, Doppler Radar, Feng Shui, Tibetan Buddhism, and Mood Ring, each implicating a different culture. After the user chooses the colour, the screen will appear in the colour and title integrated by the user’s option and the news, and in the bottom-right of the screen will appear the webcam of the change of colour at the San Jose Museum. There are LED bulbs of various colours in the museum. After the colour analysis of news by Net users, the system will send back the colour information to the corresponding LED bulbs in the museum. Thereby, the lighting colour in the museum changes with the interaction of Internet users.
◆Conclusion: “Public Mood Ring” employs the concept of mysticism, utilizing the internet’s public resource masterfully to combine the phenomenon between reality and the virtual world. Both the notion of “Public Mood Ring” and my research angle are rather similar; they are not only involved in culture and Internet users, but use the Internet search engine as tools to obtain the needs of resource materials as well. Due to the scope of my research, net art is the principal creative medium to conduct this research, with particular focus on the extension of collaborative creation. Hence, the outcome of my research did not have a concrete display but followed the strict format of net art conventions, including the notion that net art is art that cannot be performed in any other medium or in any other way than by means of the network (Brogger Andreas 2000).
◆Structure: When users enter the website, the system links to Yahoo’s global news web automatically and shows in turn recent news titles and photos in the upper-left-hand corner of the screen. Users can draw the news titles to the analysis platform to the right of the screen to read detailed news content. Once a user chooses a news item, he can set a cultural color for his mood, including Islamic- Sufi, Cherokee, Western Biblical, Zulu Beadwork, Doppler Radar, Feng Shui, Tibetan Buddhism, and Mood Ring, each implicating a different culture. After the user chooses the colour, the screen will appear in the colour and title integrated by the user’s option and the news, and in the bottom-right of the screen will appear the webcam of the change of colour at the San Jose Museum. There are LED bulbs of various colours in the museum. After the colour analysis of news by Net users, the system will send back the colour information to the corresponding LED bulbs in the museum. Thereby, the lighting colour in the museum changes with the interaction of Internet users.
◆Conclusion: “Public Mood Ring” employs the concept of mysticism, utilizing the internet’s public resource masterfully to combine the phenomenon between reality and the virtual world. Both the notion of “Public Mood Ring” and my research angle are rather similar; they are not only involved in culture and Internet users, but use the Internet search engine as tools to obtain the needs of resource materials as well. Due to the scope of my research, net art is the principal creative medium to conduct this research, with particular focus on the extension of collaborative creation. Hence, the outcome of my research did not have a concrete display but followed the strict format of net art conventions, including the notion that net art is art that cannot be performed in any other medium or in any other way than by means of the network (Brogger Andreas 2000).
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