Abstract

Transcultural Tendencies | Transmedial Transactions

International Research Conference in the series
Consciousness Reframed: Art and Consciousness in the Postbiological era.
Shangai Institute of Visual Arts
Title: A PILG-(IMAGE) TO SECOND LIFE
K. J. Karoussos
Artist, Researcher, The Planetary Collegium (CAiiA-Hub) University of
Plymouth, School of Art and Media- PhD Candidate.
The paper illustrates an alternative topology by taking advantage of the
possibilities for new forms of perception in the realm of online virtual
worlds. It is based on the outcomes of the Noetic Grace project which
was held in Linden Labs Second Life platform as a part of Yoshikaze
project, supported form Humlab, Ume University.
During three months of virtual residency in Yoshikaze studio, the author
experimented with different kind of spatiotemporal awareness formed
form the notions of virtuality as expressed during the times of late
antiquity. Saint John of Damascus (c. 676 749) was speaking about
virtual vision when he referred to the concept of noetic grace.
Such an approach raises some fundamental questions about whether
virtual worlds can have the potential to alter visual mechanisms in the
whole spectrum of imagery; both in its creation as well as in its vision.
Technologies of computing can be considered as the most outstanding
practice of Descartes theories. However even if Cartesian resonance can
be regarded as an abstract logos and as such it is clearly distinguished
from the class of the world, its principal effect to Western thought was that
of its dualism as a deterministic organization . Hence, Euclidean plane with
a chosen Cartesian system, the so called Cartesian plane, became the
standard spatial environment.
In the dual process model of thinking the forward and backward reasoning
can be used to express Euclidian transformations in where the points are
detached. Their interaction exists solely to define themselves in relation to
the other, rather than to embed themselves in an aggregate space.
Nevertheless, scientific progress has demonstrated a source which spurts
many kinds of phenomena which are by far distinct from those of a
systematic space.
Anisotropic and heterogeneous topologies, magnetic flux, non linear,
dynamic systems and emergence are some of the findings that can alter
the whole spectrum of human awareness.
Consequently, in order to create a being to-be into virtual worlds, one has
to overcome the notion of single-self objectiveness and its systematic

space and act as a potential entity released from any references which
may set barriers to a formation of a different perception and imagery.