Field Notes

Overall, luminance diminished gradually, and hue quickly became negligible unless a conscious effort is made to ascertain the color.

This melody will stop sooner than I thought.

On the ride back, the wheels on the bus were clickity clanking, swaying everyone side to side. There was a squeezing, mechanical sound that rhymically burst through the length of the bus. The voices were layered into a single hum, yet words could be deciphered here and there with enough focus, like changing the channel of a radio in a vast desertland where only the stars reflecting off the sand lights the way back home. And many more sounds that churned and whistled, random crows fluttering by and the enthusiastic moans of the wind. And within it all, I could almost see silence.

In the Ganzfeld goggles, where the space is undefined and depth cannot be determined, after about 5-10 minutes, color is experienced as a sensation more than a distinguishable name. “Real” world references like “green like grass” fall away. The individual colors, in the Ganzfeld, begin to turn from being “blue”, “orange”, “red” to distinct sensations on the spectrum of illumination and darkness. When the colors quickly shift from one to another, the shift isn't visible. It is felt with the eyes. I flex between startled and provoked in these moments, and I'm not sure what the difference is between what elicits which response. The quick shift feels like an actual pulse of fervor, mimicking its transitions in my own body, starting at the center of my core and spreading equally to the ends of every limb and follicle. The sensation is strongest within my very eyes, though. The eyelids, whether or not they are open, are almost forgotten. Then I instinctively blink, become aware of the action, and snap back to being a transcriber, filing away reality.

Force software to calculate the decay of light over time.

In the finale, a rippled, deeply saturated blue ring flickers on and off completely to black. Within my own room, my entire space was flickering this color. The distinction between the blue ring being projected onto my wall broke beyond the confines of the square and filled my entire space with presence.

The irreducibility of perceptual experience – the sensation ≠ the act.

In closing my eyes, I used a clean finger to wiggle the edge, and sought out where the lichtchaos occurred and how. I did not see honeycombs or latticework, but flickers of light and squiggles; phosphenes triggered by external stimulation... It remains unknown... This intimate visual field of light.

Light apparently doesn't just illuminate matter, it also magnetically influences it. But how? Is there a prioritization with what is influenced? How is matter influenced?

Infused solutions.

Noises, metal, shadows.