Freecell: Building a freeware version of James Turrell's Perceptual Cell - christopher-camp/uglyventures GitHub Wiki
What is Freecell?
Freecell is a project dedicated to building a freeware version of James Turrell's Perceptual Cell. Turrell's Perceptual Cells are self-contained experiences where a person enters the Cell, usually a large sphere, and is immersed in a bath of light and sound. (See pictures below)
Perceptual Cells are somewhat similar to float/sensory deprivation tanks. But where a float tank is designed to minimize all sense-perception by attempting to remove all external stimuli - removing all light, sound, taste, smell and touch - the Perceptual Cell places a person in a programmed perceptual environment, where the person is exposed to a carefully planned pattern of light and sound. And the other sense-perceptions, touch, taste, smell, are minimized.
The Freecell Project aims to create an open source version of Turrell's Perceptual Cell, where both the software and hardware/construction-design plans are freely available to the public. The hope is that these perceptual experiences will become more accessible and that the open nature of their design will invite experimentation and that experimentation will extend the range of experiences that can be facilitated.
Who is James Turrell and what is a Perceptual Cell?
James Turrell is an artist who "has worked directly with light and space to create artworks that engage viewers with the limits and wonder of human perception." Turrell's Perceptual Cells are "self-contained perception capsules" designed to deliver programmed mixtures of light and sound. And these light+sound baths are designed to induce a specific brain wave response in the participant.
Turrell's Perceptual Cells are typically available (i) by private commission and (ii) in select public museums. Currently, to our knowledge, there is only one publicly accessible Perceptual Cell in the world, Turrell's Unseen Seen at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania. FWIW, due to covid-related travel restriction, Unseen Seen is, as a practical matter, only accessible to citizens and residents of Tasmania, Australia and New Zealand.
Perceptual Cell: Experiential Descriptions
A description of Turrell's Light Reignfall: "..enclosed orb-like structure offer[s] an immersive experience. only for one viewer at a time, each participant wears special headphones and lies down on a narrow bed that slides into the spherical chamber like an MRI machine. once inside, a sequence of saturated light (operated by a technician) envelopes the viewer, highlighting the multi-sensory power of light and the complexities of the human eye... those who enter are totally surrounded by a field of illumination, devoid of edges, spatial boundaries, and rectilinear planes that typically carve out depth and space. sharp fluctuations in the color of light continue throughout the duration of the 15-minute long program, altering viewers perception and understanding of the area that surrounds them."
[A description by Alla Gadassik]: "a dim white glow illuminating the entire field of vision turns the dome into a metallic womb, until a saturated blue floods the space to transform it into a small private planetarium or simulated sky. the cell contracts only if one remembers how it appears from the outside, not as it is felt from the inside. the color fields begin to change, and then a strobe light fickers with variable rhythm throughout the transformations, so rapidly that I lose track of its actual tempo and cannot tell with certainty when and if it actually appears. ‘almost immediately my entire field of vision is filled with moving shapes and forms, many of them tinted with whatever hue fills the dome, but some of them appearing in a contrasting hue or eliding any clear association with an identifiable color ... the moving forms speed up, slow down, morph, blend, substitute one for another — I am watching what could only be described, somewhat inadequately, as a geometric abstract animated film that hovers in some indeterminate zone between my body and the dome’s architectural shell, between the perceptual cells of my organism and the technological frame that envelops them."
Freecell Project Goals:
---Big Picture Goals---
- Improve access to this type of perceptual experience by lowering cost
- Encourage experimentation by sharing the software + research with the world so that a community can learn together and create+share new perceptual experiences.
---Specific To Do's--- We are in the process of building a full project To Do list. There's lots of work to be done! We invite every motivated person to join the project.
Discord Channel
If you are interested in participating in this project, please join our Discord channel: TBD
