Din Blinde Passager (Your Blind Passenger)

I love Arken just for its physical space -- it's just an interesting museum, with weird angles that must be hard for the curators to use. If you don't look down every single odd angle, you might miss something. One year, there was a neon thermometer positioned in one of the bizarre corners. It's one of the wonderful things about the space.

The other thing about it is that you can count on Arken to consider showing art that might be out of the realm of "normal" -- but that's the sort of the thing that they would *definitely* consider. When you go to Arken, you know they are going to trot out the weird and the wonderful...stuff you don't get to see at "Dead White Guys Museum, StiffUpperLipVille, CapitalCity, Anywheresville, TheWorld"

Some of the stuff needs to be looked at after reading the cue cards on the wall -- the tapestry of life (beautifully executed, but naturally, depicting the actual horrors of life, nothing held back).

One of the exhibits (only at Arken, baby), was an installation called "Din Blinde Passenger" (the Blind Passenger) by Olafur Eliasson where you walked into a long tunnel filled with colored fog, where you could only see about 1-1/2 yard in front of you (if that). Usually, you go to a museum to see something. Here, you are supposed to walk into this long tunnel without actually being able to see where you are going, and -- without freaking out -- try to make your way through the space, while possibly bumping into others, the walls around you, and wondering when the end of the thing is going to hit your hand in front of you. You are part of the work -- you are enveloped in it. It is a completely three-dimensional experience. The whole tunnel is 100 yards long -- endless if you are claustrophobic (impossible if you have respiratory problems or freak out at the very idea of not seeing where you are going).

This is from the handout you could pick out at Arken about the exhibit -- When is here? Where is now?

To create "nowness" we have to refer to events and events are mental representations that require that something happens somewhere. Thus, space is necessary for our temporal orientation. Similarly, in order to create space, we have to process sensory information by binding events into sequential units that we call "now" or the "subjective present." Without this present, we would not have access to space and time on a subjective level, which is the nece3ssary basis for an abstracted notion of these concepts.

When we enter the tunnel that defines the outer dimensions of Din blinde passenger (your blind passenger) , we are confronted with our ourselves as being outside of space, thrown into nothingness, beyond time. Our eyes search for contrasts, trying desperately to grasp something. We look for recognizable objects in space, but there are none; no landmarks with which to navigate. We are alone. Only our upright position and our feet on the floor inform us that we are still linked to some kind of reality. What is left is the flow of subjective time and a primordial sense of space. We are drawn into an emotional frame of curiosity and anxiety.

How can we gain stability within this unusual situation? A sudden insight occurs: we discover that walking, which links us directly to the ground, and thus to the world, is one of the most basic features of human behavior (it has been said that many people have their best ideas when they walk). There are different ways of walking, and the tunnel provides at least three options.

Firstly, we can walk with a natural gait of approximately two steps per second, a mode that takes two minutes. To choose this rational attitude may also be a way to overcome emotional stress or control anxiety, since by computing the distance time, we will know that the dense, fog-filled passageway will soon be left behind.

Then, there is "mindful walking," which is much slower, sometimes in the company of other people, with whom we can talk and share the experience. In this mode, we discover our subjective presence and may develop a collective feeling of presence. We create our own sense of time, which may give us security. In Din blinde passager, this can create a unique sense of identity of self. How is this done? The brain has a natural tendency to create a temporary window of approximately three seconds and by binding three steps together in a rhythmical way, we create a unique stage for our mind.

This temporal stage constitutes a common platform for all humans, independent of cultures, and enables us to link effortlessly to others.

The third kind of walking is occasionally to stand still while allowing a flow of thoughts to inhabit the situation. On our way through the tunnel, we may stop, confronted by complete darkness or a change in the color of the light. We are then invited to meditate on deep questions that have haunted humankind throughout history (this is what art and science are about -- defining the important and sometimes unanswerable questions). Is it true that nothing is in min the mind that was not before in our senses? Do we construct space and time, or they merely copies in our minds of the physical world? Does our present have a duration of a few seconds, or is a point in time without duration that separates past from present?