York University, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design
PhD in Digital Media/Computational Arts
Ilze Briede, ilzeb@yorku.ca
Supervisor: Prof. Mark-David Hosale
Committee members: Prof. Jane Tingley and Prof. Graham Wakefield.

Emergent Feedback Loops: Bridging Human Brain Activity, Cybernetic System, and Spectatorship.

2022 - 2026

Problem statement.
This dissertation interrogates the prevailing mode of knowledge construction. A reductionist approach (deconstruction – I.B.) fragments the world to understand it by looking at its isolated constituent parts. Buckminster Fuller (1979) notably critiqued this as overspecialisation, which has increasingly distanced disciplinary fields from one another until now. In contrast, a more holistic and integrated approach brings together diverse disciplines in conversation to grapple with complex ideas. The interdisciplinary (reconstruction – I.B.) model is not novel but has deep historical antecedents starting from the Ancient Greek philosophers, the Renaissance period, cybernetic systems thinking, and research-creation paradigms - all propagated shared understandings and frameworks to transcend a collective fused idea. I see the benefit of keeping highly specialised knowledge that offers depth in collaboration with other fields (construction – I.B.), not just because it provides a multiple-disciplinary and integrated vantage point. This combination of co-existing while remaining specialised is strictly needed for each discipline to re-evaluate itself through the lenses of other disciplines, thus offering catalytic moments for re-invention, synthesis and fundamental shifts in specialisation itself. To me, that is an expression of emergence. The challenge in working with brain data through artistic and scientific paradigms is to explore quantitative brain data through qualitative experiences and means. There is a gap in constructively engaging with data to explore its shifting meanings continuously. The meaning does not define the object but is merely a projection upon it. As more meanings it can “contain” or reflect, the more profound understanding one can have about a thing. My dissertation aims to produce a scenario where such reflection points and opportunities can be produced and populated through mutual feedback loops between the cybernetic system, the human brain and the audience.

Prototype Diary ->