{"id":31897,"date":"2025-10-28T18:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T17:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robinmeier.net\/?p=31897"},"modified":"2026-03-21T23:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T22:20:11","slug":"b5s-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robinmeier.net\/?p=31897","title":{"rendered":"The Mind-Body Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Robin Meier Wiratunga, 2025. Mixed media installation: Leporello score and directional sound, text collages, 3 channel video with stereo sound. Produced by NCCR Evolving Language<\/a> and Universities of Zurich<\/a>, Geneva<\/a> and New York<\/a>. Salle d\u2019Exposition de l\u2019Universit\u00e9 de Gen\u00e8ve<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download PDF Zine<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FR: Comment \u00e9merge la pens\u00e9e chez les humains, les insectes, les machines ? \u00c0 l\u2019aide d\u2019outils emprunt\u00e9s au son et \u00e0 la science, je con\u00e7ois des exp\u00e9riences compos\u00e9es de moustiques chanteurs, lucioles synchronis\u00e9es, r\u00e9seaux neuronaux ou pigeons instrumentistes. En collaboration avec des sp\u00e9cialistes et des laboratoires, j\u2019arrange des partitions-constellations, qui op\u00e8rent comme des environnements d\u2019o\u00f9 \u00e9mergent des structures musicales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pour l\u2019exposition The Mind-Body Problem<\/em>, une d\u00e9couverte a particuli\u00e8rement retenu mon attention : les oiseaux r\u00eavent. Ils r\u00eavent les chants et m\u00e9lodies qu\u2019ils chanteront quelques jours plus tard. De cette observation scientifique est n\u00e9e une longue enqu\u00eate artistique men\u00e9e avec des neuroscientifiques et un oiseau nomm\u00e9 B5. Ensemble, nous avons rendu audible ces r\u00eaves sonores. En comparant l’activit\u00e9 c\u00e9r\u00e9brale de l’oiseau \u00e9veill\u00e9 et endormi, un algorithme d\u00e9code et reconstitue les fragments de ses songes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mais le d\u00e9codage d\u2019une exp\u00e9rience aussi intime qu\u2019un r\u00eave a soulev\u00e9 de nouvelles questions : Quelle est l\u2019exp\u00e9rience subjective d\u2019un oiseau ? Quels sont nos \u00e9tats de conscience quand nous r\u00eavons ? Pourraient-ils \u00eatre un territoire partag\u00e9 entre esp\u00e8ces ? Peut-\u00eatre, en r\u00eavant, pouvons-nous entrevoir \u2013 ou m\u00eame ressentir \u2013 ce que cela fait d\u2019\u00eatre oiseau ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dans un laboratoire, humains et animaux sont les uns pour les autres \u00e0 la fois sujets et objets, pris dans une interaction perp\u00e9tuelle. Si cet \u00e9change s\u2019effondre, si nous n\u2019essayons plus d\u2019\u00e9prouver ce que cela fait d\u2019\u00eatre autrui, il ne reste que l\u2019objectivation et l\u2019oppression. C\u2019est pr\u00e9cis\u00e9ment l\u00e0 que se situe le probl\u00e8me du corps-esprit : dans l\u2019illusion de leur s\u00e9paration. Consid\u00e9rer les corps comme de simples objets est l\u2019un des piliers de l\u2019ecocide qui marque notre \u00e8re.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aujourd\u2019hui, alors que nos paroles et nos r\u00eaves se mat\u00e9rialisent \u00e0 travers les \u00e9lectrodes de la neuroscience et prennent vie dans des r\u00e9seaux de neurones artificiels, la separation corps\/esprit continue \u00e0 agir comme un vecteur d\u2019exploitation. Que ce soit nos po\u00e8mes, nos posts ou nos dictionnaires, tout acte de langage devient un \u201cdata point\u201d destin\u00e9 \u00e0 nourrir ces nouvelles machines. Prenons le temps d\u2019\u00e9couter, de regarder chacun de ces points de donn\u00e9es, chaque \u00e9v\u00e9nement de replay<\/em> neuronal, et tentons de ressentir comment r\u00eave l\u2019oiseau B5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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EN: How does thought emerge in humans, insects, and machines? Drawing on tools from sound and science, I design experiments composed of singing mosquitoes, synchronised fireflies, neural networks, and flute-carrying pigeons. In collaboration with specialists and scientific laboratories, I arrange constellation-like scores that function as environments from which musical structures can emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the exhibition The Mind\u2013Body Problem, one discovery in particular captured my attention: birds dream. They dream the songs and melodies they will sing a few days later. From this scientific observation emerged a long artistic investigation conducted with neuroscientists and a bird named B5. Together, we made these sonic dreams audible. By comparing the bird\u2019s brain activity while awake and asleep, an algorithm decodes and reconstructs fragments of its dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But decoding an experience as intimate as a dream raised new questions: What is the subjective experience of a bird? What are our states of consciousness when we dream? Could these states form a territory shared across species? Perhaps, through dreaming, we can glimpse \u2014 or even feel \u2014 what it is like to be a bird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the laboratory, humans and animals are for one another both subjects and objects, caught in a perpetual interaction. If this exchange collapses, if we no longer attempt to feel what it is like to be another, only objectification and oppression remain. This is precisely where the mind\u2013body problem resides: in the illusion of their separation. To consider bodies as mere objects is one of the pillars of the ecocide that defines our era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, as our words and dreams materialise through neuroscientific electrodes and come to life in artificial neural networks, the separation of body and mind continues to act as a vector of exploitation. Whether poems, posts, or dictionaries, every act of language becomes a \u201cdata point\u201d intended to feed these new machines. Let us take the time to listen to, to observe each of these data points \u2014 each event of neuronal replay \u2014 and attempt to feel how the bird B5 dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n