If I Were You: The Quantum Self-Portraits.
Unveiling the Labyrinth of Body Ownership and Perception.
Could You Imagine Your Consciousness in Another Body? Ever since my childhood, this question has been a source of endless fascination. I've always been captivated by the profound yet elusive relationship we have with our bodies. Inspired by the pioneering work of Dr. Valeria Petkova and H. Henrik Ehrsson at the Department of Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet - Stockholm this exhibit of 60 first-person view self-portraits as an odyssey into the mysteries of body ownership and perception.
Several years ago, a fascinating project began its journey when I crossed paths with Dr. Valeria Petkova, whom I had the pleasure of photographing for a feature in Woman Today magazine. It was during our conversation about her scientific research and experiments that the spark of inspiration ignited. The concept was to create a precise simulation, a portal into another person's world, where, with the right triggers, you could actually experience what it's like to inhabit another body. To achieve this, one had to embrace complete openness.
While my project was originally intended to incorporate holograms, they are reserved for the next phase of development.
The Quest for Self
As humans, we've always been captured by mirrors—both literal and metaphorical. Who we are, how we fit into the world, and how we are distinct from others have fueled the works of Shakespeare to Dostoevsky, from Frida Kahlo to Jackson Pollock. Today, neuroscience unravels another layer of this complexity. As you explore these first self-portraits, feel the magnetic pull of self-inquiry and perception.
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Who are we beyond the layers?
The journey isn't just an artistic endeavor; it's a personal quest to unravel why we feel anchored in our own bodies.
Heraclitus: 'You could not step twice into the same river.' This journey is an exploration of the ever-flowing river of self, an invitation to peer through windows into the intricate tapestry of existence—yours, mine, and ours.
The Science of Being
Beyond the artistic mystique lies a robust scientific framework. In a single click of my camera as I captured Valeria Petkova, a spark was struck - illuminating the path for this profound dialogue.
She delved into the depths of 'body ownership,' a cornerstone of our very existence. She showed us that reality can change; it shifts simply with a change in viewpoint.
But here, in these portraits, science is merely the map. I've attempted to re-create and visually interpret some groundbreaking findings on the illusion of body-swapping. Each image is a journey into the infinite landscape of perception. So come, explore, and remember—maps have their edges, but our journeys do not.
The Art of Illusion: A Convergence of Science and Art
In these early photographs, science and art seamlessly merge. These are my initial experiments aimed at capturing transitional moments, probing deeply into the realm of personal experience. Through visual manipulations such as mirroring, angles, composition, and distortion, these self-portraits don't merely serve as art; they challenge the sensory status quo.
In these early photographs, science and art seamlessly merge. These are my initial experiments aimed at capturing transitional moments, probing deeply into the realm of personal experience. Through visual manipulations such as mirroring, angles, composition, and distortion, these self-portraits don't merely serve as art; they challenge the sensory status quo.
Utilizing the brain's malleability in perceiving body ownership, the altered perspectives within these images are designed to distort and redefine your fundamental perception of self. However, this is beneath the surface layer, and you must delve deeper into them.
Methodology:
Preparation: Extensive study of scientific literature to understand the psychology of body ownership.
Visual Elements: Each self-portrait is taken from varying perspectives and manipulates depth, lighting, and texture to challenge the viewer’s innate perceptions.
The Mind-Body Odyssey
We've come to the end of this journey but hopefully, only to the beginning of your own exploration into the intricate mind-body relationship. As you walked 'in my shoes,' I hope you've sensed the oscillation between being the observer and the observed, between existing within a body and considering the uncanny possibility of existing within another. This exhibit is an open dialogue between two seemingly disparate worlds - science and art - yet, it's a dialogue that unveils the extraordinary universe harbored within each of us.
"If I Were You: The Quantum Self-Portraits." it's an intellectual quest into the architecture of your perceptions and the liquidity of your identity. It is both a conversation starter and a narrative disruptor, beckoning all those who dare to explore the boundaries of the self, both scientifically and artistically.
Experimental psychology often resorts to illusory techniques to understand the function of the brain. In one such experiment, researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm made people believe they had a new body. How does this work?
The participants in the experiment wears virtual glasses connected to two cameras. These cameras are placed on the head of another person/mannequin and directed downward toward his body. When the participant in the experiment puts on these glasses and looks down at their own body, they see the body of the other person/mannequin in place of his own body.
But this is not enough to achieve the illusory body swap. For this purpose, the researcher must touch both bodies synchronously (i.e., in the same place and at the same time). In this way, the sensation of touching one's own body merges with the visual information from touching the other person's body. As a result, an illusory sensation is created that the participant feels the touch of another body, and that body is their own. To break this illusion, it is enough for the two bodies to be touched asynchronously. In this way, scientists are able to find a way to "turn on" and "turn off" the feeling that a given body is one's own. This opens up possibilities to understand the function of the brain in the emergence of physical self-awareness.
Figure 1. Experimental set-up to induce the "body swap illusion".
Credit: Dr. Valeria Petkova, H. Henrik Ehrsson
Some details:
By taking advantage of a 'body swap' illusion, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have captured the brain regions involved in one of the most fundamental aspects of self-awareness: how we recognize our bodies as our own, distinct from others and from the outside world. That self-perception is traced to specialized multisensory neurons in various parts of the brain that integrate different sensory inputs across all body parts into a unified view of the body. The findings, reported in the journal Current Biology.
https://news.ki.se/how-we-come-to-know-our-bodies-as-our-own
Figure 2.
Physiological evidence for perceiving a mannequin's body as one's own.
The mean skin conductance responses (SCRs) for 10 participants when the illusory body was “threatened” with either a knife or a spoon. The SCR is significantly greater in the illusion condition than in either of the control conditions (p = .009 and p = .028, two-tailed t-test). The response does not differ significantly between the two control conditions (p = .484, two-tailed t-test). Error bars denote standard errors.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0003832.g003
Dr. Valeria Petkova. Credits: Ivan Peikov / Woman Today magazine
🌟 Thank you for joining the odyssey of "If I Were You: The Quantum Self-Portraits." These self-portraits spark curiosity, blending art and science to redefine self-perception. 🚀 Your engagement is an invitation to continue exploring the boundless realms of identity.
Thank you for being part of this journey. 🙏🌟
#QuantumSelfJourney #ThankYouArtExplorers #Peikov #RobinDeHood #PaperCap
