Process: Creating the séance device for Membrane 008: The Tongue Is An Eye That Listens (pt. 1)

A multi part chronicle of the design and fabrication process.

This and the next few posts will be an in depth chronicle of my process of design and construction of the ritual headdress device that will be featured in the next chapter of the story.

But first a quick recap:

The device is based on existing technologies and consists of the following components:

• EEG - to monitor and transmit brainwave signals to a monitor bank

• Ganzfeld goggles with red LED’s - to block out distractions from the surrounding environment and create a homogenous visual field

• A preprogrammed Brainport-like device (a vision aid for the blind that uses electrical stimulation of the tongue to produce images in the mind’s eye) loaded with chosen images to serve as the concentration objects for all participants.  The tongue stimulation component resembles a communion wafer and its placement on the tongue serves a ceremonial function as the official starting point of the ritual.

• A red fabric veil and 3D printed occipital bone affixed over the middle of the forehead (pineal gland/third eye), for symbolic and ceremonial purposes