PLATFØRM
A Journey Through The Mind
The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Platform is a visual journey through the mind and aims to visualize concepts associated with psychology and mental health. Each concept is a stage towards self-discovery and forming one’s identity. This project aims to establish a connection between the conscious and unconscious mind and our perception and take a step in the journey of selfdiscovery.
It should be noted that although all these concepts have been researched, these understandings are more of the artistic type and should not be used as scientific proof.
It should be noted that although all these concepts have been researched, these understandings are more of the artistic type and should not be used as scientific proof.
Human beings gain perception by interacting with their environment. These perceptions that come to mind form mental structures. At the same time, subsequent perceptions can disrupt these structures from which another order is born. These structures are constantly affected by changes in the environment and stimuli, leading to new understandings and
ultimately shaping one’s image of themself. As they progress, new perceptions clash with the old ones and cause chaos. Harmony leads to entropy which leads to duality. To grow, one must face this duality and find new perceptions. Ultimately this process helps forge one’s identity and their sense of self.
From a technical and artistic point of view, this project is a study of greebles in sci-fi and abstract environments. The structures are formed by using simple procedural techniques to generate randomized panels. The materials showcase the effects of lighting on reflective and refractive surfaces. Everything has been designed inside SideFX Houdini and rendered with Redshift.
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Perception
PERCEPTION
There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.
Aldous Huxley
To experience the world, we must first perceive it. Our perception of the world comes in many different types. Our five senses are the main ways to perceive our surroundings, but our perception is not limited to these senses. Our sense of time, balance, body position, and the ability to understand social cues are other essential types of perception (Cherry, 2020).
Efron (1969) believes that perception is the main form of cognitive contact with our environment and all of our understandings originate from this source of awareness. A study by Kenyon and Sen (2015) showcases that different people perceive their environment differently, resulting from having different backgrounds, cultures, and personalities. The process by which someone interacts with stimuli and interprets the information is called perception, thus forming an understanding of their surroundings. “Perceptions act as filters, thus preventing us from being overwhelmed by all of the
noise (stimuli) around us” (p. 41). Our perceptions are reinforced by learning, memory, and expectations. This will help us form a sound understanding of our environment even if the information and the stimulus are inadequate.
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Dream
DREAM
Dreams are the guardians of sleep and not its disturbers.
Sigmund Freud
Pagel et al. (2001) noted that there are many definitions for a dream, and it is mainly impossible to come up with a single report. “A dream should not be exclusively defined as a non-conscious electrophysiologic state. Dreaming is, at least in part, a mental experience that can be described during waking consciousness.” (p. 195). Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines “dream” as a series of thoughts, images, or emotions occurring during sleep. At the same time, a more psychiatric definition can be stated as “bizarre or hallucinatory activity during a continuum that extends through stages
of sleep and awake” (p. 197). Freud (2010) believes that “A dream is the fulfillment of a wish” (p. 147). Pagel et al. note that the most generally accepted definition of the word “dream” in popular culture is Freudian.
of sleep and awake” (p. 197). Freud (2010) believes that “A dream is the fulfillment of a wish” (p. 147). Pagel et al. note that the most generally accepted definition of the word “dream” in popular culture is Freudian.
Windt (2021) claims that we regularly have a self in our dreams. This self can be marginally not the same as our waking self or be completely unique. Dreams give exciting inquiries concerning how we see ourselves. Whether we see ourselves or an entirely new individual as the “I” in the dream, they stay a global condition of cognizance and provide a philosophical discussion around the concepts of knowledge, morality, consciousness, and self.
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Harmony
HARMONY
You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself.
Hermann Hesse
Harmony comes from the Greek word harmos, which means “joint.” It’s utilized in various fields: The pairing of simultaneous musical notes in a chord in music. In today’s English, Harmony is now used to define a pleasant and coherent mix of parts in a whole - an object, a landscape, a living being, a person’s conduct, and a community. Harmony refers to a pleasant condition of inner serenity, calmness, and balance, as well as the sensation of being in sync with the world in psychology. It is used to define a pattern of relationships within a social group and between individuals and their social context in the social sciences. (Delle Fave, 2014)
Delle Fave (2014) believes that harmony is incorporated in various constructions on a psychological level, all of which are related to wellbeing. Munoz Sastre (1998, as cited by Delle Fave, 2014) discovered that self-acceptance and relationship harmony significantly impacted well-being judgments in a qualitative study including French participants. Lu (2001) asked Chinese university students to define happiness in their own words. Individual pleasure or fulfillment, agency, spiritual enrichment, and a positive outlook were all mentioned in responses, as well as a harmonious and dynamic state of existence. Harmony was studied by Jason and his colleagues (2001) as a fundamental component of the wisdom construct, which includes balance, self-love, excellent judgment, appreciation, and life purpose. In the Eudaimonic and Hedonic Happiness Investigation (Delle Fave et al., 2011), harmony was recently identified as a significant component of well-being. Inner harmony, defined as peace of mind and evenness, equanimous attitude toward life events, and the perceived balance between various demands, commitments, and goals, was rated as a critical dimension of happiness by Western adult participants from multiple nations. Finally, harmony was explored as a dimension of well-being about spirituality, alongside social connectivity, tranquility, gratitude, forgiveness, and self-discipline (Koenig, 2008).
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Entropy
ENTROPY
No structure, even an artificial one, enjoys the process of entropy. It is the ultimate fate of everything, and everything resists it.
Philip K. Dick
The level of uncertainty and disorder within a system is characterized as entropy, a notion borrowed from thermodynamics and information theory. To preserve internal entropy at a reasonable level, self-organizing systems engage in a continuous dialogue with the environment and must adapt to changing circumstances (Hirsh et al., 2012, p. 1).
Jung (1970) believed that, like the physical world, energy principles might be applied to psychology. Two factors define this energy; The principle of equivalence and entropy. The principle of equivalence states that “for a given quantity of energy expended or consumed in bringing about a certain condition, an equal quantity of the same or another form of energy will appear elsewhere.” Because our experience is limited to a somewhat closed system, we can’t observe “absolute psychological entropy.” However, the phenomena of entropy manifest themselves more clearly the more the psychological system is closed off. The higher the tension between opposites, the larger the energy emanates, and the bigger the energy, the stronger the constellating, attracting power. (Jung, 1970)
Uncertainty, according to Delgado (2020), is a sign of psychological entropy. One approach to judge the depth of disorder in systems, including our ideas, is the degree to which we can know how distinct components of a system are arranged at any given time. When people are unable to cope with uncertainty, they experience chaos and experience disorders such as cognitive dissonance.
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Dissonance
DISSONANCE
Dissonance is the truth about harmony.
Theodor W. Adorno
As proposed by Festinger (1957), the cognitive dissonance theory states that humans frequently have two opposing or inconsistent cognitions, causing tension or discomfort. People are therefore driven to eliminate dissonance in the simplest way feasible.
When someone is compelled to perform something they don’t want to do; a cognitive-behavioral dissonance is formed. “Forced compliance occurs when an individual acts inconsistent with their beliefs.” Because the conduct cannot be reversed as it happened in the past, dissonance must be lessened by re-evaluating their perspective about what they did (McLeod, 2018).
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Self
SELF
“A self is not something static, tied up in a pretty parcel and handed to the child, finished and complete. A self is always becoming.”
Madeleine L'Engle
McLeod (2008) believes that “self-concept” refers to how a person thinks about, judges, or views himself. To have an idea of oneself, one must be conscious of oneself. At its essence, self-image responds to the question, “Who am I?” This question is answered in a variety of ways by various people. Physical characteristics or societal roles and personal characteristics, and existential assertions might all include a proper response to this question.
Self-worth is one of the numerous terms used to characterize different elements of people’s self-perception. Individuals’ views, perceptions, attitudes, thoughts, and feelings about themselves in general, as well as their talents, competencies, qualities, and actions, are referred to as “self-perceptions.”
Self-perceptions, or our various views about ourselves, have a significant impact on the kind of activities we participate in, the amount of effort we will put into that activity, and the chance that we will engage in that activity again (Shapka, 2018).
Thanks for watching!
Armin
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References
Cherry, K. (2020, July 9). How Does Perception Work? Verywell Mind.
https://www.verywellmind.com/perception-and-the-perceptual-process-2795839#:%7E:text=Perception%20is%20the%20sensory
https://www.verywellmind.com/perception-and-the-perceptual-process-2795839#:%7E:text=Perception%20is%20the%20sensory
Efron R. (1969) What is Perception?. In: Cohen R.S., Wartofsky M.W. (eds) Proceedings of the Boston Colloquium for the Philosophy of Science 1966/1968. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-3378-7_4
Kenyon G.N., Sen K.C. (2015) The Perception Process. In: The Perception of Quality. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6627-6_5
Pagel, J., Blagrove, M., Levin, R. et al. Definitions of Dream: A Paradigm for Comparing Field Descriptive Specific Studies of Dream. Dreaming 11, 195–202 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012240307661
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Citation. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved February 28, 2022,
Freud, S. (2010). The interpretation of dreams: The complete and definitive text (J. Strachey, Ed. & Trans.). Basic Books. (Original work published 1900)
Windt, Jennifer M., Dreams and Dreaming, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/dreams-dreaming
Delle Fave A. (2014) Harmony. In: Michalos A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_1231
Lu, L. (2001). Understanding happiness: A look into the Chinese folk psychology. Journal of Happiness Studies, 2, 407–432.
Jason, L. A., Reichler, A., King, C., Madsen, D., Camacho, J., & Marchese, W. (2001). The measurement of wisdom: A preliminary effort. Journal of Community Psychology, 29, 585–598.
Delle Fave, A., Brdar, I., Freire, T., Vella-Brodrick, D., & Wissing, M. P. (2011). The eudaimonic and hedonic components of happiness: Qualitative and quantitative findings. Social Indicators Research, 100, 185–207.
Koenig, H. G. (2008). Concerns about measuring “spirituality” in research. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 196, 349–355.
Hirsh, J. B., Mar, R. A., & Peterson, J. B. (2012). Psychological entropy: a framework for understanding uncertainty-related anxiety. Psychological Review, 119(2), 304–320. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026767
Jung, C. G. (1970). The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche (Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 8) (Collected Works of C.G. Jung, 47) (G. Adler & R. F. C. Hull, Eds. & Trans.; 2nd ed.). Princeton University Press.
Delgado, J. (2020, December 7). Psychological Entropy: Your stability depends on how much uncertainty you can tolerate. Psychology Spot. https://psychology-spot.com/psychological-entropy
McLeod, S. A. (2018, February 05). Cognitive dissonance. Simply Psychology.
Welles, J. F. (2018). Cognitive Dissonance Revisited. Neuroscience and Neurological Surgery, 2(1), 01. https://doi.org/10.31579/2578-8868/025
McLeod, S. A. (2008). Self concept. Simply Psychology. www.simplypsychology.org/self-concept.html
Horn T.S., Newton J.H. (2014) Self-Worth and Measures of Body Image. In: Michalos A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_4134
Shapka J.D., Khan S. (2018) Self-Perception. In: Levesque R.J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33228-4_481
