Museum

Museum is a project that I developed to visually convey some of my ideas and beliefs. I believe that interactive art holds great possibilites for communicating in ways that other forms of media might not be able to. Through the internet, it is possible for an individual to create an work of art and allow everyone to access it, without seeking the approval of an authoritive establishment. When art requires user interaction, the user is drawn into the realm of imagination; he or she is part of the piece. I have grown increasingly excited about this kind of personal communication between people, from being affected by someone else's art to having my own ideas about art pieces I would like to make for other people to interact with. I'm using the word art to describe the work that I have done here, but that's not an absolute definition. This piece initiated from my desire to create something that other people would want to spend some time looking at.

Museum is the word I am using to describe this interactive exploration of the quest fot knowledge. It is about being born into a world described by language, where everything is language, and seeking to define oneself within and outside of that context. Science has given us the language we use to talk about elements of life. Through rational thinking, science dictates the way that we reference our reality. But rational thinking and sometimes tries to invent answers for or discount what it cannot explain. The truth is that there is so much left to be discovered. We don't stand to learn something until we can admit that we know nothing. In this regard, I am praising science for being a discipline that advances knowledge and mocking it for being self-righteous when it claims to have the absolute answer. Science classifies named items into categories and references previous named items to establish definitions. How would it classify you or me? How does the world of language classify us? How much do we let ourselves be defined, and how much do we seek to definie ourselves?

Our view of history has been shaped by the people who wrote the history books. When you attempt to learn about aspects of history that are not so clearly defined, you begin to realize that there are a lot of gaps. Sometimes the structure feeds us the answers that it wants us to believe, because without answers we are unstable. For the structure to be maintained, there must be stability. My own perosnal investigation has turned me on to a wealth of information about the knowledge gained by past civilizations and the tendancy of history to reject past knowledge if it is contradictory. In particular, I have found interest in the Mayan civilization, who developed advanced methods for analyzing astrological signs and natural time cycles. (These interests lead me to write and develop an adventure game called Palenque's Vision). I have attempted to populate this site with as many relevant links as I have felt would be necessary for further exploration of the ideas that I am presenting.

I welcome all feedback and suggestions. I am interested in collaborating with other artists who have had entheogenic experiences. Let's continue to increase communication to link avenues of healing and aid inner growth.

May all beings know peace.

--Darius Jaeger Farraye
12.20.2001.

Thanks to my family and friends for support of my hibernation while working on Museum.

Thanks to The Museum of Natural History for inspiration on the structure.

Infinite thanks to Shpongle for inspiration and for use of many sampled loops in this piece. I have provided links for all of the music I integrated. I recommend Shpongle with the highest possible degree of praise. See: Tales of the Inexpressible, Are You Shpongled?, and a concept album produced by Raja Ram, The Mystery of the Thirteen Crystal Skulls.

Thanks to the teachers who have been mentors: Jason Benjamin Fink, Stefanie Triggiani, Amit Pitaru, Theis Dinesen, and to Steve Rittler/Harry Jung, my senior thesis advisors at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY during the producion of Museum. I have provided links to Pratt Institute and the Computer Graphics department below.

Thanks to my Wacom digitizer tablet, a tool of the digital age that I am privalaged to be able to use.

Museum is dedicated to the memory of Terence McKenna, and his essential writings on entheogenic plants and shamanisim.

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