Please come Thursday, April 26 at 7 pm to
- 38 Ludlow Street
- Basement
- New York, NY 10002
where Tauba Auerbach, David Reinfurt, and Daniel Ryan present SPIRAL INDUCTION, an invitation to enter a subtractive trance state.
Climb down a small set of stairs where 6 feet below Ludlow Street you find a gently pulsing environment lit by the oscillating light of a small congregation of computers running a new screensaver. Stay for a lecture and gentle induction by hypnotherapist Daniel Ryan.
SPIRAL INDUCTION screensaver by Tauba Auerbach and David Reinfurt is published by O-R-G and was originally commissioned by Kadist Art Foundation. It is available for purchase at the event and now, online, below. Guided experience by Daniel Ryan, sound contributed by Hiro Kone.
The computer is already a hypnotic device. Staring at a fixed focal length, scrolling, and swiping all induce what hypnotherapist Daniel Ryan calls “subtle learning states.” And on the screen, what we repeatedly learn is a bent set of values including ravenous consumerism, preposterous ideas of hierarchy, gender, beauty, and spirituality. We consume these more deeply than we realize.
Hypnotists have used pendulums, repeating sounds, vanishing points, particular vocal cadences, and a variety of other means to produce a state of consciousness and brain activity marked by calm focus and extra sensitivity to suggestion. The process these tools facilitate is called “induction.”
Can we use the screen to hypnotize in a kinder way? To prompt specific eye movements, to pulse at certain rhythms, and invoke gestures that calm, or heal, or produce clarity of mind? Left-right eye movement is used together with restorative messaging in EMDR therapy to treat post traumatic stress disorder and the counter clockwise spiral is often associated with a cooling, more female aspect (though it's rarely so simple). This screensaver attempts a more benevolent induction.
http://o-r-g.com/screensavers/spiral-induction
more here: