O, WHAT A WORLD of unseen visions and heard silences, this insubstantial country of the mind! What ineffable essences, these touchless remembering’s and unshowable reveries! And the privacy of it all! A secret theater of speechless monologue and prevenient counsel, an invisible mansion of all moods, musings, and mysteries, an infinite resort of disappointments and discoveries. A whole kingdom. where each of us reigns reclusively alone, questioning what we will, commanding what we can. A hidden hermitage where we may study out the troubled book of what we have done and yet may do. An introcosm that is more myself than anything I can find in a mirror. This consciousness that is myself of selves, that is everything, and yet nothing at all — what is it?

And where did it come from?

And why? [1]

In The origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind, Julian Jaynes introduces us to a poetic series of questions about invisible visions and audible silences that explore consciousness. His introduction inspires a performance on the staircase of Cukrarna, a historically rich building whose walls have absorbed the sonorities of the Slovene modernists’ fates. As the participants ascend the stairs, the sound performance transforms into an immersive experience, drawing out echoes of the past and stored visions from the walls. In this way, the metal staircase becomes an instrument of the visitors, resonating with the silences of history and raising more questions than giving answers, echoing Jaynes’ idea of consciousness as an intangible realm of the mind.

The technical core of the performance involves a sound sensor, a software algorithm, and a digitised database of modernist poetry. Together, these elements create a complex sonic tapestry composed of layered sounds and the inner voices of the literati.

[1] The origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind, Julian Jaynes, Penguin books, 1990.

Photo: Matej Tomažin, Cona.

Spiro Mason [Dušan Zidar] graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana, Department of Sculpture, where he also completed his postgraduate studies. In his works, he uses different media: sculpture, drawing, noise, and intermedia art. He has held several solo and group exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad. Since 2000, he has been a professor at the University of Maribor, Faculty of Education, Department of Fine Arts.

Rene Markovič, PhD, is employed at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Informatics at the University of Maribor. He also teaches at the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Education at the University of Maribor. He holds a Ph.D. in physics and is actively involved in research in various fields, such as energy, biophysics, text analysis, mathematical modeling, and data mining. Additionally, he is engaged in machine learning and data analytics.

COLOPHON

Concept and realisation: Spiro Mason
Programme algorithm: Rene Markovič, PhD
Use of the eBralec speech synthesizer, eBralec team (Amebis, Alpineon, IJS).

Production: Cona, 2024.