Twingle: A Method for Performing Altered States of Consciousness Research (ASCR)

Twingle is a computer resident noetic system to capture, store, and search an interwoven web of information using a graphical (in contrast to a relational) database schema. This schema is integrated with multiple means to display and navigate the dataspace returned by a query to the database. The impulse to create Twingle came out of my own transdisciplinary research into altered states of consciousness. The multiple threads of this investigation: scholarly reading and sifting of others' research, reports and speculations; first person 'traveler's tales;' and multimedia artistic production suggested a different approach to the organization and display of a multimedia database. The dataset is composed of widely differing items from multiple fields. The task has been to find a form or forms that could begin to map the connections among the points in differing discourses and formats. Part of the effort is to construct arguments, and to present evidence in forms that more closely resemble the multiple pathways of hypertext, instead of the strictly hierarchical outline form of the linear argument of the standard dissertation form. From a graphical organization, a logic and language of links develops. One analyzes a dataset in terms not only of the content of the nodes, but of the density and depth of the links among the nodes. With Twingle, the networks of nodes and links can be created and expanded to reflect the changing patterns of meaning and interpretation of the user, rather than creating a fixed organizational system to which all information must conform. New and different nodes, new attributes, and new links can always be created. another aspect, deeply influenced by ASCR A logic of constant transformation within a network becomes visible. Data is experienced as a multisensory flow through variable space-time, rather than as static items in lists. Likewise, specific data displays can be designed and implemented that suit the user's need for information visualizations. The Twingle architecture is such that it can be implemented in a variety of database languages (Oracle, MySql, MS SQL, etc.). Similarly, the client's data displays can be created in a variety of available languages (Java, PHP, ASP, Director, Flash, etc.) The paper will cover the history, purposes, design rationales, and application potentials, including the performative, of the Twingle system.



Author Bio
Diana Slattery is Associate Director of the Academy of Electronic Media, Diana Slattery researches, designs, and produces highly interactive, game-like multimedia environments for education, entertainment, and the arts. Her Ph.D. research in visual language, interactive narrative, and altered states of consciousness informs the Glide Project. The evolving project has been shown at 7th Biennial Symposium on Art & Technology at Connecticut College, March, 1999; at the IEEE Symposium on Visual Language, Tokyo, 1999; at the FILE Art festival, Sao Paulo Brazil, 2001; Technopoetry Festival at Georgia Tech in April, 2002; Symposium on New Directions in Electronic Literature, UCLA, April, 2002; The Ninth Biennial Symposium On Arts and Technology, Connecticut College in February, 2003; Workshop on the Art and Science of Interstellar Message Composition, Paris, March 2003; Digital Arts and Culture Conference, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia in May 2003; Consciousness Reframed, University of Wales, Caerleon, Wales, July, 2003; Society of Literature and Science, Austin, Texas, October, 2003; Ciberart 2004, Bilbao, Spain, April, 2004; ISEA, August, 2004; Siggraph, August, 2004; Consciousness Reframed, Qi and Complexity, November, 2004. Online publications include Journal of Postmodern....Journal of Postmodern Culture ("Alphaweb: A Poetry Hypertext"), Riding the Meridian ("Glide: An Interactive Exploration of Visual Language"). ET Phone Home, a work for mobile phone, was shortlisted for the Resfest Korea 2003 Award in that category. In her earlier print career, SlatteryÕs short story collection Bizarre Births (Georgia Review, Spring '88) received the following recognition: included in Georgia Review's finalist entry for the National Magazine Award, Honorable Mention: Pushcart Prize, Honorable Mention: The Best American Short Stories, and named as a finalist for the Flannery O'Connor Award for short fiction. Her science fiction novel, The Maze Game, was published in 2003 by the Deep Listening Foundation.