
Text by Jonathan Miles
“Everything we see could also be otherwise.
Everything we can described at all could also be otherwise.”
—-Ludwig Wittgenstein. Tractatus

Installation shot of the exhibition © Heart Lab
Heraclitus said that thinking was walking into the strange. This exhibition begins with walking in a dimly lit corridor. Each spectator holds a small torch with which to navigate the spatial encounter. Attention starts to shift from the eyes to the feet, from wide awake visuality to other senses especial the regulation of touch. We are locked in, but also opened out, as we enter a dark room with only the torches as a guide. The air feels dense. This is a slow space, a space of arrest even a space of regression.
A memory of other spaces starts to occur. Attention wanders as part of the reorganisation of the faculties. The space is folded in ways that occasion shifting sensations in which images might be formed. As imaginary images start to mutate, a shift to other spaces start to occur. The space of the cave is foremost but then how such spaces mutated into cave retreats for the early mystics who formed a view of an abstract universe unhindered by the concerns of the everyday. We might wonder what images of a future-to-come were imagined in these spaces and then how a connection between wondering and wandering was formed.
The torches do not serve to articulate bounded images but rather traces that create a passage which serve as ripples within visual perception inhibiting a sense of cognitive connection. Are we invited to walk within the mountains or the enter the deep of the forest? Textures as much as images flicker in this quarter space of vision.
The great painter-monks of the early Song Dynasty prepared to paint not by amassing visual data of landscapes, but by first traces the energetic formations collected through walking. This translated into the paintings possessing breath resonance. Through this the great breath of emptiness was rendered visible in what was a silent transmission of the inner law of the universe. Their feet were thus their main organs of perception.

Muqi, Detail of dusk over fisher’s village, from the handscroll “Eight Views of Xiao and Xiang”, circa 1250, Collected in Nezu Art Museum
It might be noticed that the pattern of breathing deepens within this space. At this juncture there might be a meeting point between scientific understanding and ancient mysticism, but anyway the focus is on how attention is formed. It can be claimed that art is the attention to attention and that exhibitions serve to bracket this. Here the bracket is of the laboratory that is predicated on neuro-aesthetics and so we have the figure of research but a sense of research that opens out a search. The culture is one of saturated hyper attention in which words and images are all layered into complex patterns that are ultimately ciphered through algorithms.
The great mountains look on as they collect yet another sense. They stand as symbols of the immeasurable. Whatever the sky is always above, and the seas are below. Is the contest between East and West that of emptiness and presence as a way of assembling a viewpoint upon things? Culture is just a view or just the air that we breathe. The search for coherence is simple the way of lending attention to that search for viewpoints. Research is the model that I leant to this process. Placing the ‘heart’ into this matter is to add warmth to hat might be reduced to the cooling valve of systematic reason.
The space links seeing, with feeling, memory, knowing, and imagination, all of which linked by a method born out of intuition or the immediacy of the objects at hand. The faculty of intuition is related or possesses the principle of form before it might be subsumed into instances of abstracted concepts, so it forms a direct and immediate apprehension and a disavowal of formal principles of knowing. Metaphorically it stays close to movement apprehension (walking), as opposed to sedentary postures (sitting). Kant viewed space and time as objects that were available to intuition because they are not subject to being abstracted from sensation. This factor is important in relationship to the exhibition because it focuses upon a way of presenting space and time in way that might alter the process of perception.
So, we are left to wander and wonder which way to go, and how to go. Travel can implicate itself as forgetting as much as awakening. Worlds are offered as much as are withdrawn. Deserts form and deform, forests appear and then are subject to disappearance, everything is in turn subject to such contraries whether tiny or great. A tiny experiment in perception draws attention to what is passing by. In terms of scale this is miniscule, but it draws its vital energy from being on the very edge of disappearance. As an intake of breath, it is in the quality of the breath that resonates at the intersection of science, art, and esoteric sense.
More about the Exhibition:
Can You Afford to “Pay” Attention?
4-9 June 2024
Greatorex Street Gallery, London
Curated by Mu Qing, the exhibition is uniquely set in a completely dark environment with no source of light. Each visitor will be given a torch to navigate the space, turning away from the overstimulating “white wall” gallery setup and elimination distractions. This setup ensures visitors focus on one artwork at a time, enhancing their ability to “pay” more attention. Research indicates that people tend to be more relaxed, less self-conscious, and more creative in the dark. Participating artists include Cat Campbell, Hou Yuxuan, Amy Hui Li, Emma Jordan, Rosie Mullan and Issy Wilson.

Installation shot of the exhibition © Heart Lab
More about Heart Lab
Heart Lab was founded by Mu Qing in 2023 with the belief that “ART beats in every heART.” With its expertise in neuroaesthetics, it strives to use the power of neuroscience and aesthetic science to create new narratives in the story of art.
The primary approach of Heart Lab is to integrate neuro-aesthetic research findings into its curatorial storytelling. By doing so, it aspires to unlock fresh perspectives for the public to experience art and redefine what art exhibitions could be.
Heart Lab :「你能『付出』注意力嗎?」
撰文 x Jonathan Miles
「我們所看到的一切都可能是不同的。我們所描述的一切也可能是不同的。」
——路德維希·維特根斯坦,《邏輯哲學論》
赫拉克利特曾說,思考就是走向陌生。這次展覽的旅程始於昏暗的走廊,每位觀眾手持小手電筒在展覽空間中導航。我們的注意力從眼睛轉移到腳下,從完全清醒的視覺轉移到其他感官,特別是觸覺的調節。我們彷彿被鎖在裡面,同時又被釋放,當我們進入一個僅靠手電筒引導的黑暗房間時,這種感覺尤為明顯。空氣變得厚重,這是一個緩慢、停滯,甚至有些倒退的空間。
在這裡,記憶中的其他空間開始浮現。注意力自然地游移或分散,成為重新調整感官過程的一部分。空间以某种方式折叠,帶來了变化的感官体验,从而可能形成图像。隨著虛構圖像開始變異,轉移到其他空間的過程也隨之開始。展覽空間最初像一個洞穴,但後來這些空間如何變成早期神秘主義者的靜修地?在這些地方,他們形成了一種不受日常煩惱影響的抽象宇宙觀。我們可能會想知道,在這些空間里,人們如何想象未來的圖像,以及如何在思考和漫遊之間建立聯繫。
手電筒並非用於清晰地描繪邊界圖像,而是創造了一種通道,在視覺感知中形成波紋,抑制了認知連接的感覺。我們被邀請在山中行走,還是進入森林深處?在這個視覺的四分之一空間中,質感和圖像同時閃現。
北宋時期偉大的畫僧們在準備作畫時,並不是通過積累景觀的視覺數據,而是首先通過步行追蹤能量的形態,進而轉化為具有呼吸共鳴的繪畫。通過這種方式,巨大的空虛氣息在宇宙內在法則的無聲傳播中被可視化。因此,觀者們的腳成為了他們主要的感知器官。
你可能會注意到,在這個空間中,呼吸的模式變得更加深沈。在這一節點上,科學理解和古代神秘主義之間可能會有一個交匯點,但無論如何,重點在於注意力的形成。可以說,藝術是對注意力的關注,而展覽則有助於支持這一點。在這裡,神經美學實驗室作為支架提供了研究的框架。這個研究不僅僅是為了獲取知識,更是一種探索和發現的過程。這種文化充滿了高度集中的注意力,文字和圖像都被層層疊疊地嵌入複雜的模式中,最終通過算法進行解碼。
從高山俯瞰,它們收集到的是另一種感覺,它們作為不可測量的象徵而存在。無論天空永遠在上,海洋在下,東西方之間的爭論是否通過空虛和存在來構建對事物的觀點?文化只是一個視角,或者只是我們呼吸的空氣。尋求連貫性只是關注這種尋找觀點的方式。研究是我對這一過程的探索。將「心」融入研究過程,就像為理性的系統增添了一些「暖意」的冷卻閥。
這個空間連接了視覺、感覺、記憶、知識和想象力,這些都通過一種源於直覺的方法或物體的直接性聯繫在一起。直覺能力涉及或具備形式的原則,然後才可能被抽象概念的實例所包含,因此它形成了一種直接和即時的領悟,並否認了形式化的認知原則。從隱喻上講,它更接近於移動的領悟(行走),而不是靜坐的姿勢。康德認為,空間和時間是直覺的對象,因為它們不是從感知中抽象出來的。這一因素在展覽的關係中非常重要,因為它專注於以一種可能改變感知過程的方式來呈現空間和時間。
因此,我們被留在空間裡遊蕩,思考該走哪條路,如何走。旅行可能意味著遺忘,也可能意味著覺醒。世界既被呈現,也被隱藏。沙漠形成又消失,森林出現然後消失,一切事物都受到這種對立變化的影響,無論大小。這個感知上的小實驗使得人們的注意力被引導到那些正在消失或變化的事物上。從規模上來說,它微不足道,但卻從瀕臨消失的邊緣汲取了重要的能量。如同吸入一口氣,這呼吸的重量在科學、藝術和神秘感的交匯處產生了共鳴。
關於展覽:
Can You Afford to “Pay” Attention?
4-9 June 2024
Greatorex Street Gallery, London
此次展覽由穆青策劃,獨具匠心地被設置在一個完全黑暗的環境中,沒有任何光源。每位參觀者將得到一隻手電筒以便在空間中導航,從而遠離過度刺激的「白牆」畫廊設置,並消除乾擾。這種設置確保參觀者一次只專注於一件藝術品,增強他們「付出」更多注意力的能力。研究表明,人們在黑暗中往往更放鬆、更少自我意識、且更具創造力。參展藝術家包括Cat Campbell、侯宇轩、Amy Hui Li、Emma Jordan、Rosie Mullan和Issy Wilson。
關於Heart Lab:
Heart Lab由穆青於2023年創立,秉持「ART beats in every heART」的信念,以期將神經美學在實驗室中發現的成果帶入策展敘事中,並與現當代藝術作品結合,向觀眾提供一個全新的角度體驗藝術,感受藝術。穆青是一名獨立策展人。當前,她的策展實踐側重於神經美學與藝術史的研究。她熱衷並擅長利用科學方法,揭示個體在進行審美活動及藝術創造時,其大腦和神經系統所發生的變化,以及這種變化能夠如何正向影響個人的福祉。