Mind Readings: Using 19th century mentalism techniques to study how mind-reading neurotechnology transforms our understanding of mind and body
Lead Research Organisation:
Lancaster University
Department Name: Lancaster Inst for the Contemporary Arts
Abstract
This interdisciplinary, practice-based PhD will critically examine the discourse surrounding mind-reading
technologies through creative methods that are practical, accessible, participatory, and inclusive. It will produce
performance art work that dramatises the social, philosophical, and ethical issues of mind-reading technologies for
a general audience.
Theatrical mentalists and magicians have a rich history of critical engagement with public notions of mind-reading
and technology. Techniques drawn from this tradition will be used in conjunction with research methods from
Design Fiction and Performance Ethnography to stimulate and elucidate theoretical ideas about mind-reading
discourses, histories, practices, and technologies.
Mind-reading technologies are central to the growing field of neurotechnology, a $7.6 billion market predicted to
reach $12 billion by 2020 (Cavuoto, 2018). With applications being developed for gaming, the military, medicine,
social media, and everyday human-computer interaction, Wired magazine called 2017, "a coming-out year for the
brain machine interface (BMI)" (Levy, 2017).
As mind-reading technologies mature, becoming increasingly sophisticated, varied, and widespread, there is an
urgent need to critically examine their potential benefits and dangers (Levy, 2008). Such a timely examination
requires a consideration of their historical antecedents, an evaluation of the challenges they present to prevailing
philosophies of mind, and the use of creative research methods that can capture and communicate their embodied
nature in a tangible manner.
This study will be grounded in cultural theory, philosophy of mind, and performance art studies. The key areas of
intersection in my research will be between: the history and cultural theory of theatrical mentalism; emerging mindreading
technologies; and the philosophy of mind, mind-reading, cognition, and intersubjectivity. The theoretical
concerns of these areas will be studied through reflexive workshop facilitation, performative design fiction,
participatory performance art, and the iterative processes of analysis, design, prototyping, testing, and reflection.
The PhD will be 80% written to 20% practice. I will use a combination of qualitative and action research
methodologies, including ethnographic participant observation and participatory performance art intervention. The
practical component of the PhD will require further research and development of research methods from
performance and design fiction. An action research methodology and an iterative design process will provide
structures within which to analyse and reflect upon performance art practice and to develop new ways of working
with people in participatory performances.
technologies through creative methods that are practical, accessible, participatory, and inclusive. It will produce
performance art work that dramatises the social, philosophical, and ethical issues of mind-reading technologies for
a general audience.
Theatrical mentalists and magicians have a rich history of critical engagement with public notions of mind-reading
and technology. Techniques drawn from this tradition will be used in conjunction with research methods from
Design Fiction and Performance Ethnography to stimulate and elucidate theoretical ideas about mind-reading
discourses, histories, practices, and technologies.
Mind-reading technologies are central to the growing field of neurotechnology, a $7.6 billion market predicted to
reach $12 billion by 2020 (Cavuoto, 2018). With applications being developed for gaming, the military, medicine,
social media, and everyday human-computer interaction, Wired magazine called 2017, "a coming-out year for the
brain machine interface (BMI)" (Levy, 2017).
As mind-reading technologies mature, becoming increasingly sophisticated, varied, and widespread, there is an
urgent need to critically examine their potential benefits and dangers (Levy, 2008). Such a timely examination
requires a consideration of their historical antecedents, an evaluation of the challenges they present to prevailing
philosophies of mind, and the use of creative research methods that can capture and communicate their embodied
nature in a tangible manner.
This study will be grounded in cultural theory, philosophy of mind, and performance art studies. The key areas of
intersection in my research will be between: the history and cultural theory of theatrical mentalism; emerging mindreading
technologies; and the philosophy of mind, mind-reading, cognition, and intersubjectivity. The theoretical
concerns of these areas will be studied through reflexive workshop facilitation, performative design fiction,
participatory performance art, and the iterative processes of analysis, design, prototyping, testing, and reflection.
The PhD will be 80% written to 20% practice. I will use a combination of qualitative and action research
methodologies, including ethnographic participant observation and participatory performance art intervention. The
practical component of the PhD will require further research and development of research methods from
performance and design fiction. An action research methodology and an iterative design process will provide
structures within which to analyse and reflect upon performance art practice and to develop new ways of working
with people in participatory performances.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Stuart Nolan (Student) |
 http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2138-7107
|