Artists Statement
The Totem as Axis Mundi… (and Artistic Expeditions of Consciousness):
For me, artistic practice is an expedition of consciousness. I’m interested in practices and devices that facilitate a transformative shift in consciousness. In particular, creative practices and works that result in extraordinary peak performance abilities or inspired information. For the past few years I’ve been working with Yoruba ritual rhythms as code; as a structure for alternate forms such as visual works. I’ve also been creating video mnemonics based on the work of 13th century Raymon Llull whose concentric circle devices were used to access knowledge of the past and future. His work was based on a practice known as The Art of Memory, with roots in ancient Greece. In Lull’s time, “memory” was a function of conceptualizing both the past and the future, which as a Catholic, were believed to belong to the realm of the divine. Recently I’ve been looking at the practice of circumambulation – ritualized circling, often to gain access to an alternate realm, or shifted state of consciousness. Typically, the ritual is performed around an “omphalos”, a world-navel or center of the world, with a cord, world axis, or axis mundi bridging our world with alternate realms. Nearly every culture has some symbolic form of the axis mundi, and totems can certainly be thought of as a similar “mnemonic” device. While in some cultures of the past, the Axis Mundi would be fixed to a particular location. In our contemporary syncretic culture they are variable and dynamic, generated when and where needed. The prints and projection pieces I’m presenting in the Totems and Tech show are studies for contemporary mnemonic totems which I am developing for a master class in Delphi, Greece in January 2016 working title: "A Creativity and Consciousness Expedition", stay tuned.

The piece exhibited during "Totems and Tech" is an adaptation of a work shown at the Cairo Di-Egy Exhibition in 2013: A digital video projection inspired by devices used to traverse the boundaries of consciousness in order to access perspective, insight and inspiration. It is a video "mnemonic" based on "The Art of Memory", and Raymon Llull's 13th century mnemonic wheels.
The project investigates the correlation of rhythm and consciousness and integrates Yoruba rhythms and exercises developed at Stanford University known to induce lucid dreaming - in this case adapted to generate "lucid wakefulness".

Artist's Bio
Pam Payne is a transdisciplinary artist from the NYC metropolitan area, currently based in Brooklyn, NY. Her projects explore the transformative potential of artistic works and their impact on consciousness and culture. Her artworks include installations, performance, recordings and prints using digital and analog time-based media such as sound, video projection and code. Her projects have been awarded grants from NYSCA, LMCC, ETVC and The Puffin Foundation and her artworks have been exhibited and writing published in the US and internationally. A graduate of NYU’s ITP program in the 1908s, Payne is currently a PhD candidate in the Technoetic Arts, researching the correlation of rhythm and consciousness in post-digital culture with Roy Ascott at the Planetary Collegium, Center for Advanced Inquiry in the Integrative Arts (CAiiA), University of Plymouth, UK.