VIZUALIZING THE
EMOTION ORGAN/BODY MACHINES AND "QUACK" THERAPUTIC DEVICES
MARCH 2006
Here are two attemps to visualize The Emotion Organ. The first was made at the start of my project in 2005. The second in 2006, which attempts to depict the placement of the organ in the Eidsvollsgalleriet, in the parliament building, Oslo. (1) The second image was made with the help of visual artist Ketil Nedgaard.
Here are 2 images from the performance of "Eraser's Edge" at the Ultima Festival in October 2005, where I used live sound input from the musicians to influence the video processing (live camera input and abstract coulour/shape). I am particualarly interested in the way I placed the projection and myself in relation to the other instruments and players (peri-personal space).(2)
While the way I am developing the physical appearance of The Emotion Organ is by adhering to notions of synaesthesia (clinical diagnosis, "readymades" used for something iother than intended, my emotional response to objects and materials), I can't help making a connection between how the organ is developing and images I have seen that were used as diagnostic and theraputic aids in the past.
Below are images of instruments from the archives of quack medicine. Many drew on the notion of vibrational correlations of elements such as sound and light waves to diagnose and treat a multitude of ailments. While some had no affect on the patient what so ever, others were harmful.
1. PHONENDOSCOPE
Advertised to pick up the different sounds made by various diseases, the phonendoscope
was fairly popular at the end of the 19th century. The one here is complete
and was produced by the famous French instrument maker, Aubry.
2. HEPATIC DOUCHE
Before technology provided healers with sophisticated buzzers and bells, most
were content to use the elements they had at hand, including water.
3. ELECTOPOISE
A number of devices were sold in the early 20th century that supposedly provided
more "healing oxygen" to diseased tissues when worn properly, though
in reality did nothing at all.
4. KELLOG ARC LAMP
An arc lamp is capable of producing very bright light with eye protection
mandatory. The picture of a subject being treated is from "Light Therapeutics"
(1927), by JH Kellogg, MD, with the light cabinet from the same text. Spectro-Chrome
devices were very popular in the early 20th century for the treatment of all
disease categories. They were designed by Dinshah Ghadali to produce a bright
light that was passed through differently colored filters. The "Dinshah-attuned
color waves" that were produced varied according to the disease that
was to be treated.
5. THERMOCAP (hair treatment)
Allied Merke Institutes, Inc. designed the thermocap for hair growth. There
was no evidence that the heat from this light bulb was at all helpful, however.
6.NEU-VITA OCULIZER (eye massage)
Certainly muscles get stronger with exercise, so why not eyesight? That was
the theory behind these two eye massagers. The first one was called the Neu-Vita
Oculizer (London), and the second the Ideal Light Restorer (New York).
7. THE WHITECROSS HOME VIBRATOR
Say no more!
8. KELLOGG VIBRATING CHAIR
This device was produced for use in the Kelogg sanitorium.
9. AUTOCLAST TREATEMENT
The Abrahms theory of treatment consist in throwing into the patient's body
an electric impulse having the same vibratory rate as that of the disease.
The object of this is to sympathetically increase and intensify the vibration
so that it will be eventually broken, just as the trot of a dog across a shaky
bridge has been known to set up such an intense sympathetic vibration as to
cause the bridge to collapse. The recent appalling disaster in Washington,
D.C., when the roof of the American Theatre collapsed and fell upon the audience,
killing and maiming a multitude, has been attributed largely to the sympathetic
vibrations in the rafters, produced by the music from the giant organ used
during the performance. It is due to the same cause that reinforced
concrete has been unable to stand up alongside solid concrete in certain prolonged
tests; the metal used for the reinforcing often taking up sympathetically
the vibrations from outside sources, thereby causing the concrete to become
eventually weakened. Abrahms accordingly contends that if a vibration sympathetic
to that of the disease is set up throughout all the tissues, cells, molecules
and atoms of the patient's body, it will ultimately cause that particular
electronic movement to collapse. When this is done the disease has been mastered,
he declares, and it then remains for nature to use its untrammeled powers
of carrying off the accumulated poisons and restoring the patient to normal.
The Abrahms method of treatment is therefore essentially destructive not constructive.
(Written in 1923)
10. PORTABLE SHORTWAVE OCILLOCLAST
This oscilloclast was made by one of the offshoots of Dr. Abrams' activities,
The College of Electronic Medicine in San Francisco. The multiple dials were
used to adjust the frequency of vibration to match that needed for the particular
disease to be treated.
12. LIFE LITE VIOLET RAY
One of the most popular health devices for the home as well as the doctor's
office was a vacuum tube that, when electrified, gave off light, sparks and
generated ozone, the latter "curing" any number of respiratory complaints
when inhaled. These "violet ray" machines continued to be sold into
the 1950's, with cased sets that contained numerous electrodes designed for
use in separate parts of the body. The Life Lite was used on all parts of
the body and at all ages, as can be seen from the enclosed advertising.
13. QUACK MEDICINE IN THE PENNY ARCADE
The beneficial effects of therapy with electricity were available to all,
including those spending an afternoon at the midway.
14. Physio-electro therapy room, 1930's.
LINKS AND REFERENCES:
(1) See: LOCATION SCOUTING FOR PRESENTATION
OF THE EMOTION ORGAN
Parliament building (Stortinget), OSLO
05 February 2006
(2) See: ERASER'S EDGE
CONCERT AT ULTIMA 2005 FESTIVAL
THE NORWEGIAN ACADEMY OF MUSIC, LINDEMANSALEN
12 OCTOBER 2005
IMAGE REFERENCES:
IMAGE 9. Autoclast treatment.Image and text taken from:
RADIONICS INTRODUCTION (part of Richard Loyd's website on health care)
http://www.royalrife.com/radionics.html
Image 14. Physio-electro treatment room from 1930's
http://www.neuro.unibo.it/neuroit/pics/FISIO2_WEB.jpg
All other images and texts from:
Collect medical antiques. Quack Medicine. Imagination goes wild.
http://www.collectmedicalantiques.com/quack.html