In her work The Artist is Present (2010), performed at The Museum
of Modern Art, New York over a three-month period, Marina Abramović confronted
a succession of individuals with whom she engaged in mutual gaze. During the
performance, she exhibited feelings of pain, happiness and sadness which
resonated with those of the person sitting opposite her. On average, people
entertain mutual gaze for a maximum of seven to nine seconds; any longer
suggests that an act of love or war is about to take place. As a result,
scientists were led to wonder whether there was an eventual synchronicity
between the artist and the sitters.
Inspired by The Artist is Present, Marina Abramović has collaborated
with American and Russian scientists on an experimental performance
installation that expands our understanding of non-verbal communication.
Developing Abramović’s interest in the transfer of energy between performer and
public, performer and participant, Measuring the Magic of Mutual Gaze
(2011) crosses a frontier and makes visible the workings of the human brain –
the organ that governs physical and mental activity.
Measuring the Magic of Mutual Gaze represents a unique, reciprocal
collaboration between art and science. It is the first in a series of projects
developed during the workshop Art and Science: Insights into
Consciousness, hosted at The Watermill Center in New York in the summer of
2010 and supported by the Mortimer D. Sackler Family Foundation. This special
debut re-stages the lengthy endurance conditions of the works Nightsea
Crossing (1981-1987) and The Artist is Present (2010), in which
Abramović engaged in mutual gaze with, respectively, fellow artist Ulay and
successive participants. By applying science to these situations, the
performance explores notions of the creative leap, evolutions of cognition and
understanding, silent communication, and the moment when forms of chaos give
birth to new opportunities and works of art.
Participants should be 18 or older to take part in the
experiment.
Sign up
Advance registration is required. To sign up, please refer to
the information desk at Garage, or call +7 (495) 645-05-20.
Participance cancellation
To cancel or move your registration, please call +7 (495)
645-05-20. You may cancel or move your registration only 24 hours before your
appointment.
Realtime brain installation/visualization: Dr. Suzanne Dikker and
Matthias Oostrik
Primary technical consultant: Douglas Bemis
Experimental procedure in collaboration with Dr. Jason Zevin; Dr. Eva Hulse;
Dr. Mikhail Burtsev; Olga Gerasimova
Watermill Workshop participants: Marina Abramović; Dr. Mikhail
Burtsev, Research Scientist, Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics of Russia
Academy of Sciences (KIAM RAS), Moscow; Dr. BJ Casey, Sackler Professor and
Director, Sackler Institute, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York; Dr.
Suzanne Dikker, Postdoctoral Associate, Sackler Institute, Weill Cornell
Medical College, New York; Matthias Oostrik, magdatt.nl, Amsterdam; Daria
Parkhomenko, Director, LABORATORIA Art & Science Space, Moscow; Ilene
Sackler Lefcourt, Director, Sackler Lefcourt Center for Child Development, New
York; Dr. Kathe Sackler, MD, Purdue Pharma; Dr. Daniel Stern, Honorary
Professor University of Geneva, Department of Psychology, Geneva; Dr. Nadja
Bruschweiler-Stern, Pediatrician and Child Psychiatrist, Director, Swiss
Brazelton Centre, Clinique des Grangettes, Geneva; Jorn Weisbrodt, Director,
The Watermill Center, Executive Director, RW Work Ltd., Watermill, New York;
Dr. Myrna Weissmann, Professor of Epidemiology and Psychiatry, College of
Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York; Dr. Jason Zevin,
Associate Professor, Sackler Institute, Weill Cornell Medical College, New
York.
Consultants: Dr. Hugo Chritchley; Dr. Antonio Damasio; Dr.
Hannah Damasio; Dr. Andrew Gerber; Dr. Jay Gingrich; Elizabeth Goldring; Dr.
Scott Makeig; Chrissie Iles; Matt Mullican; Otto Piene; Robert Wilson
Technical and artistic consultants to the installation: Dr Jonathan
Brennan; Dr Gregory Cogan; Eric Forman; Damon Ginandes; Irene Kotnik; Lauren
Silbert.
