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Collective unconscious on-line / 2018

/Czech crystal glass, electronics, displays, worldwide internet content, perspex, metal, 130x30 cm/

The collective unconscious consists of common experience of humankind, it is intercultural and to some extent it is identical to all human beings. The collective unconscious contains the archetypes. These are instincts, inherited tendencies to experience and act in a certain way. Every individual extends the content of the collective unconscious on the basis of personal experience. The collective unconscious has shaped throughout the historic and prehistoric development of mankind, and its roots go back to the subhuman ancestors. However, archetypal patterns have been described only from the time when humans began to express themselves artistically and verbally, and results of these activities remained preserved. The invention of book-printing, later followed by other advanced recording technologies and spread of information have enabled us to map human beings more complexly. It is actually the world-wide access to the Internet that makes it possible to really explore what people are interested in. The Internet is a source of information on all existing fields of human activity, it maps our interests, knowledge, visions, theories etc. I perceive the Internet as a visible equivalent to a collective unconscious. It is similarly intangible, it tells a lot about us, we are creating it, and it is forming us. Through the Internet, an essence of human consciousness and its gradual growth in real time can actually be noticed. A built-in display inside a life-size glass skull is projecting topics that people are most searching for on the Internet at the moment in a fast sequence (approx. one second per one picture). Accordingly, the displayed content changes every day. It maps the current and most important interests, information and events. Geographically, it covers the entire world with the exception of countries, where there is no free Internet access. The video thus allows to summarize what is affecting us, and also how we are currently partly modifying the collective unconscious. The installation is composed of nine skulls, each one is projecting synchronous same content. The skull is not meant as an expression of finality. On the contrary, it is a bearer of information that consciousness survives physical death as an intangible databank of mankind.