The Sympathy Gentle Pain Machine
The Sympathy Gentle Pain machine is an interactive performance combining
meditation and painful electric shock.
Thought patterns produce distinct electrical energy within the brain, and
specific effects within the universe. Because of the disconnected nature
of human existence, few people are able to conceptualize, even at the level
of metaphor, the real way that the nature of our consciousness affects each
other. The Sympathy Gentle Pain Machine aims to dramatize this connection
in a distinctly tangible way.
Participating pairs of visitors are seated in an enclosed space, separated
from each other by Plexiglas, and viewable to the audience by closed circuit
television. Each participant has electrodes on their heads connecting them
to an EEG machine, and an electric shock collar around their neck.
The EEG machine is able to detect the constantly changing balance of beta
(waking) brain waves and alpha (meditative) brain waves. This information
is displayed to the audience via monitors and to the participants through
a modulating bell tone. Soon after the participants are strapped in, the
electric collars begin producing mild but discernable electric shocks. By
mediating, subject “A” is able to shift to an alpha state, which
reduces and eventually stops the shocks for subject “B”. By
becoming angry or agitated, “A” goes into a fast beta state,
which causes “B”’s electric shocks to increase in intensity.
“B”’s mental state affects “A” in the same
way. This way, the mental state of each participant is responsible for the
suffering of the other.
Technical details and specifications are available upon request
