the switch of consciousness

the switch of consciousness, 2014

i took the photo “the switch of consciousness” in the halls of the old secondary school (progymnasium, called progr) in berne as a part of a private project i’ve been pursuing for the past four years.

switch of consciousness

i’m referring to blog 6 on the topic of creativity, blog 9 about neurochemical connections and blog 10 on the topic of memory and conscious and subconscious storage.

brain research is trying to solve one of the last big mysteries: consciousness. but neither consciousness from a philosophical point of view nor a certain part in the brain for consciousness exist, just like there is no place for the soul in our body.

consciousness is a state of deliberate experience that i can tell people about.

background consciousness is based on my emotional experiences and shows me that this body is my body and that i have my own identity. i can also differentiate between reality and my thoughts and intentions. in short: i know that it is (only) me who thinks, feels, experiences or even decides and acts.

actual consciousness means that i, on the one hand, notice occurrences in the environment or in my body through my senses and, on the other hand, experience emotions and needs, i.e. hunger. this also includes purely mental activities such as thinking and remembering.

most of the daily happenings, however, don’t require consciousness as our brain can process many things that don’t even reach our consciousness. this is called implicit perception – implicit learning.

the explicit operation mode of consciousness is required when it comes to learning new things – this is even fostered by consciousness! learning new things is achieved by creating neuronal lanes and groups (nerve cells are created and organized in new groups). the working memory (=cortex) plays a key role in this process. after the “roads” (lanes) have been developed, strengthened and automated, the activity of the working memory is being reduced. with automatization, actual consciousness turns into nothing but a limiting factor – everything is done unconsciously – we can even do it in our sleep.

since sensations reach us faster than we can process them, we need a working memory to buffer data. this is done with the help of the neurotransmitter dopamine which i introduced to you when talking about creativity in blog 6.

this information is stored in the cortex for a short amount of time until it has been analyzed, classified and compared to previous experiences. 

dopamine therefore ensures a slow, cognitive processing of information in the cortex. 

the stress hormone noradrenaline is released in the locus coeruleus (blue core) in times of stress and prevents the effect of dopamine. this causes the working memory to turn itself off in favor of parts of the brain that are not part of the cortex. noradrenaline thus fosters fast, analog processing of information that is not accessible by our consciousness.

stress and the release of noradrenaline thus lead to a shift in the brain from a conscious, slow mode to a fast and subconscious one. noradrenaline is incidentally a chemical precursor of dopamine – both are of importance for the development of psychological illnesses. 

the stress hormone noradrenaline in the blue core plays an important role for shifting between consciousness and subconsciousness. (noradrenaline is also produced in the adrenal glands, where it leads to bodily stress reactions in combination with adrenaline).

unconsciously working brain structures, located deeply in the brain and particularly in the limbic system, come into effect in this way. switching off the working memory complicates or precludes the learning process and with that our receptiveness and also creativity. stress kills the ability to think as well as creativity. 

among many other structures, the amygdala (almond core – memory for fear and feelings), the mesolimbic pathway with the nucleus accumbens (luck and reward system) and the hippocampus (sea horse – the declarative, episodical long-term memory) are part of the limbic system.

it is thus not astonishing that our stress plagued society is severely suffering from psychological and physical diseases, as though it seems that we turn off our conscious control through our behavior and are thereby making way for automated and morbid brain processes.

i will continue talking about findings from stress and trauma research in future blog posts. this will allow insights into how we are experiencing the world, how we are guided and what possibilities we have to steer our boat ourselves. according to findings in brain research and quantum physics, the extent of these possibilities is, however, far from certain.

sources: gerhard roth, klaus grawe

quadrophotography

l'inconnu, 2001

dear followers

from now on, my blog posts will be released triweekly. enjoy!

the photo is called “l’inconnu” and is a nice example for creations produced by moving the camera.

actionsampler by lomo

this story is similar to the one told in blog 8 about the i-pen. only now we’re going back to the age of analog photography, sometime in 1997. once more, it occurred in broad daylight, triggered by a mail order catalog. and trust me, i am anything but fond of mail order catalogs, but the universe with its often strange coincidences literally pushed me towards this object.

a small miracle camera was advertised in this catalog, surrounded by playing children and a grandmother with a broad and jubilant smile. my interest was not really aimed at these laughing, happy people, but more towards the reason for this overwhelming joy.

the camera did not only have one lens, no, it had four of them, arranged in a square. when triggering the shutter, a disk with a hole in it starts turning behind the four lenses. the exposure process takes about one second during which the disk with a hole in it behind the lenses is turning, thereby letting light pass through each lens and exposing the 35mm film behind it. on this small-size picture format of 24x36mm, four full images instead of one are pictured in a correspondingly smaller format with the aim of giving the prints away.

this small plastic camera, which is basically just some sort of pinhole camera with no possibility of changing settings, immediately caught my attention. specifically the duration of one second to take four pictures was screaming out for creative interpretation! the camera was designed for capturing a moving object or an action scene. but what would happen if i radically moved the camera itself during that one second?

i could barely await taking the first snapshots. i was especially surprised and impressed by the high imaging performance of the four miniature lenses, which is additionally attributed to the strong wide-angle alignment of the lenses. enlargements up to the formats din a2 or even din a1 are possible!

the highlight, however, is the exposure time of one second. i can either hold the camera steady and shoot four almost identical photos. taking the same picture four times in a row already creates a special artistic charm. but by quickly moving the camera, i will get four different images with stronger or weaker blurriness caused by the movement. even though i am quite fast for a native bernese man, i am much too slow for moving the camera around when looking through the swiveling viewfinder while i am taking the picture. i outsmart the system by aiming at the initial scene, then pressing down the release while immediately and quickly moving the camera back and forth through the air in a previously rehearsed loop.

it does not take a lot of imagination to picture the astonished faces of people around me that unwillingly witness a special kind of performance as soon as the wild man whirls this small camera through the air. a performance with an almost signeresque touch, albeit without explosions and generally without destruction (roman signer is a swiss artist).

well, not quite – many “flying” cameras inwardly disintegrated due to the spring that powers the ominous shutter disk, busted by wild movement of the camera through the air. unfortunately, the unsteady speed of this disk often makes one of the four pictures underexposed, especially after one of the camera’s rapid “roller coaster rides”.

the whole system comes with all kicks as well as all disadvantages of analog photography: the price of a film and the waiting time until the film is developed. since this camera does not have an exposure meter, the lighting conditions have to be estimated like photographers did one hundred years ago. it is for that reason i always have two of these cameras with me, one with a fast film and one with a slow film in it. this comes with an additional advantage of having a spare camera in case the other one has been “moved” to pieces.

it took quite some time for me to find out that this camera is part of the somewhat strange world of lomos and that the whole thing is called lomography. today, lomography has a large fanbase that is strictly devoted to analog photography. berlin, for example, and many other cities have large stores filled with lomo cameras for all likings. you can find everything about the hype surrounding lomography at www.lomo.de.

multi-faceted memory

schattenfiguren, 2014

i did not post a blog entry on march 22 since i was away on vacation. i was able to experience a wonderful journey through myanmar, cambodia and thailand, which included many human, cultural, geographical and of course photographical highlights.

my website will be available in english starting monday. i would like to welcome all interested english speakers.

multi-faceted memory

when looking at a photo, i can recognize people, a face, places or maybe situations. this requires a memory that allows me to acquire, memorize or retrieve information. that way i can remember experiences or plan my future according to my assessment of previous experiences. one could call that intelligent behavior (depending on the outcome).

the short-term memory memorizes and remembers instantaneously, but only with limited capacity. the long-term memory possesses a high store capacity with more stable memories. these are based on synaptic plasticity.

the long-term memory can again be divided into the declarative, explicit memory, where facts, but also automated actions are memorized (i.e. riding a bike, which is consciously learned at first and then turns into an automated process). this is consequently about relearning and unlearning.

the procedural, implicit memory is about “knowing how to”. emotional reactions (being afraid of an animal) and reflexes (closing your eyes in case of danger) are memorized here. the whole process follows the principle of pavlovian conditioning. this memorization aims at optimizing the chance of survival.

pavlov’s dog experiment works as follows: a bell sounds every time the dogs are fed, and the view of the delicious food naturally makes their mouths water. after some time the bell is rang without food being served – and this still makes the dogs’ mouths water. this means that the dogs show a conditioned reaction to the sound of the bell.

stimuli and information from our environment, but also from our bodies steadily enter our brain through our various senses. this could lead to excessive stimulus of our brain (an epileptic fit can be viewed as such an event). the brain keeps everything in order through the thalamus, the “gate” to the brain and the most important control center, which filters out irrelevant stimuli. that way many neurons remain unstimulated or are even debilitated. as long as i am strongly focusing on something, i am fading out irrelevant things like traffic noise, but i quickly react when someone calls my name.

a single neuron does not “know” anything. it is only groups of simultaneously activated neurons and their pattern formation that gain significance. in the learning process – and life is one big learning process – the involved neutrons group in specialized networks. as soon as one neuron has activated another neuron repeatedly, new contact points are created, which in addition become more sensitive and more stable (!), just as if the system would remember previous stimulation. this is called long-term potentiation (ltp).

the nervous system is very adjustable, adaptive and self organized!

the brain memorizes everything, some consciously, but most of it unconsciously. all our experiences, thoughts and imaginations, but also our actions and their consequences and not least our emotions (saved in the amygdala, part of the limbic system, deep inside the brain) determine our identity. just like we “rate” our past, it influences our view on the present and our actions in the future.

as a reminder: the memory as such does not exist. there are only different systems of processing and memorizing. memory therefore means that neuronal structures are being changed. this is called neuroplasticity of the brain.

sources: christof koch, manfred spitzer, gerhard roth, klaus grawe

the neurochemical foundation of our emotional life

farbentanz, 2011

the photo in blog 9 is called “farbentanz” and was taken in my backyard. once again, i was unable to hold the camera still, despite my usually steady hand. all jokes aside, the picture is a nice result of blurring created by moving the camera when using a low shutter speed.

blog 7 focused on neural networks. in today’s blog, i will talk about the most important transmitters. they form the foundation of our emotional life.

the cell membranes of neurons are stimulated by a random impulse. this nerve impulse wanders along cell processes that are up to one meter long and are called axons, to the synapses, where transport vesicles (small bags) filled with neurotransmitters (i.e. dopamine) are standing by.

the transmitters released through this nerve impulse now stimulate the reception center (dendrites) or the neighboring target cell until it “fires” as well, thus forwarding this signal by means of action potentials (a series of electrical signal impulses) through its axon to the next target cell, thereby stimulation the latter again.

the whole thing is thus an electrochemical form of signal transmission from cell to cell by means of releasing various neurotransmitters. this happens in milliseconds up to seconds. according to recent studies, most neurons develop several transmitters. transmitters are stimulating, but also debilitating. drugs take advantage of this by chemically interfering at these synapses.

neurotransmitters (in the brain): glutamate, important for the learning process and potentially responsible for developing schizophrenia and maybe other diseases.

neuromodulators, which create our consciousness and our mental state:

dopamine, our motor for happiness, desire, satisfaction, rewards and our working memory!

serotonin, for our pleasure system and our emotional life.

noradrenalin, for attention, new stimuli, depression; in combination with adrenalin it is also very important for our stress system in combination with adrenalin.

acetylcholine, for our memory formation.

neuropeptides: opioids - endorphins, morphine created by the body to suppress pain, but also to increase happiness. more than one hundred different types have been discovered so far.

vasopressin, to regulate liquid volume

oxytocin, which generally strengthens relationships, i.e. between mother and child or between partners. sex actually raises the release of oxytocin and therefore leads to closer relationships. additionally, sex strengthens the immune system.

neurohormones: corticotropin-releasing-factor (crf), which produces the hormone acth. this “axis of stress” in turn plays a key role in traumatic events.

many readers might now recall traumatic experiences from school. don’t worry, it’s not necessary to understand the many complex biochemical processes up to the molecular level. i am, however, firmly convinced that it is worth it to loosely memorize the above mentioned terms as they will come up again when attempting to explain feelings, mental state, pleasure through all our senses, problems of stress, learning, conscious and unconscious experience, up to better understanding diseases and the effectiveness of drugs. the more you hear about something – learn it –, the better it will stay in our memory.

our whole life is based on learning processes, real experiences – thus psychological processes – which influence the synapses’ willingness to transmit, in a stimulating as well as a debilitating way. this can and must be recognized and used, particularly also in psychotherapy.

understanding these complex processes in our brain and our body, and the functionality of our subconscious in particular, in combination with the microcosm of quantum physics and epigenetics gives us a new perspective on being human.

sources: gerhard roth, klaus grawe, manfred spitzer

i-pen-photography

mein sonnenschirm, 2006

in today’s blog 8, i’d like to present to you a special, playful and somewhat nutty type of photography.

in 2003, i accidentally discovered a digital camera made by pretec in a catalogue. the camera has a special design and is intended for a target audience with a flair for unordinary commodities, or people with an adventurous play instinct. the camera is packed into and hidden in a ballpoint pen and, since invisible to potential targets of its lens, designed for “secret, spylike” photo techniques. its resolution of 480x640 pixels was already mingy for that time and pretty much inapt to produce a somewhat clear image. the viewfinder is a simple hole that easily fits a toothpick or dental floss. it is absolutely inaccurate and what will eventually be in the picture depends on the angle and distance between your eye and the viewfinder. accordingly, the result was shocking. many pictures were off, the horizon tilted. the “spy gadget” is powered by one aaa battery that lasts for about 50 pictures and forces me to move around as a walking supplier of batteries. to save power, the camera turns itself off after a few seconds. therefore, i often press the release without noticing the camera being out of order and turning it back on with a twisting mechanism takes quite some time. many nice scenes have therefore never been immortalized and now only remain as fugitive energy in the universe.

the first series of images on the monitor was not a pretty view. all images were flat and colorless, soupy like a somber november day. i aggressively changed the hue in photoshop as a result of my frustration, mixed with minor curses. trial and error has always been the mantra of evolution – and voilà, the universe wished to reconcile with me and led me on the right path: phoenix rose from the soupy image and suddenly, images with colorful pixel squares (almost resembling the works of paul klee) arose, magically adding a touch of a painting. this phenomenon is particularly impressive in pictures magnified to 60 centimetres or more.

now the spell was broken, the cheers could not be overheard and i was unstoppable. i already had to make sure that the pen did not melt or even grow together with my right eye.

selbstporträt i-pen, 2011

the appearance of this not so young man with a pen before his right eye and the encounter with this photo alien often surprises bystanders, making them somewhat insecure about their perception. amazement, pitiful shaking of heads, but also curious inquiries are the most frequent reactions. i can barely count the number of dropped jaws anymore and i still find them delighting, even though i have seen my fair share of open mouths in my previous profession. the great attention that is drawn to this photo gadget and the person behind it naturally leaves little room for secretive spy activity.

unfortunately, but also somewhat understandably, the manufacturing of this photographing pen was shut down. a version without a viewfinder that makes videos is still available. however, this makes capturing a motif even a bit more difficult.

maybe pretec will realize the great potential of this pen due to the pictures in this blog and begin mass production.

the photo to blog 8 „mein kleiner sonnenschirm“ is part of a beach series i created in calabria in 2004. the full series is available on this website under the tab i-pen-photos. the picture “la mama am strand” beautifully represents la italianità. the scenery was exhilarating and not only perfectly played, but also intoned in a stunning way.

the images on page 21, 44 and 63 of my book as well as the picture in blog 4 were shot with the i-pen camera.

brain and knowledge

wissenmachtschaft, 2006

the photo in blog 7 shows the facade of the swiss federal parliament building that is fenced with barbed wire. the title is also a wordplay.

writing about creativity in blog 6, i brought up many terms such as dopamine, emotion, intuition, reward system, luck, limbic system, “unconscious emotional center”, stress and learning.

seeing, sensing photographies and experiencing art is linked to processes in the brain. this inevitably calls upon us to learn more about these processes and to understand them.

as i announced in previous blogs, with each new blog i’m going to go deeper into the matter of brain, consciousness, unconsciousness and with that quantum physics.

our brain only weighs 1.4 kilograms, but it is our most complex organ with wisdom from 500 million years of evolution. it is always turned on, regulating and managing all of our bodily functions.

the brain consists of two halves (hemispheres) that are connected by the corpus callosum. it was believed that each hemisphere had its specific functions. however, recent research methods have shown both halves exchanging and complementing information, therefore working together. this leads to increased brain performance.

take music for an example, where the left half processes sound elements and the right half the “melody”. this results in music. details of a photograph are seen on the left, the whole image on the right.

we hence need to dissociate from the perception that logic originates from the left and emotion/creativity from the right. humans feel, think and act holistically through both hemispheres interchanging information.

the brain contains about 100 billion neurons (nerve cells, comparable to the number of stars on the milky way).

a neuron is a complex chemical plant, a microcosm. every nucleus of these neurons contains all 35’000 genes of the individual. each neuron is a specialist in a specific place, but always working in groups.

each neuron is connected to other neurons through up to 10,000 synapses. there are 60 trillion of these contact points = synapses in the cortex. it is on these synaptical clefts where the chemical transfer through neurotransmitters and neuromodulators takes place (e.g. with aid of the messenger dopamine as mentioned in the last blog).

new neurons and synapses are created during our whole life. they interconnect with each other. this process is called neuroplasticity and is very important for the learning process. decreased brain performance has nothing to do with age, but depends on training!

our experiencing, learning, behaving and with that our consciousness and our identity are based on this interconnectedness of neurons and their excitation patterns.

neurons are the atoms of perception and lead to consciousness and knowledge.

does knowledge create more power? how powerful is science? who leads and guides science, particularly on ethical paths?

sources: christof koch, norbert herschkowitz, klaus grawe