P.S.A
An Experiment on Psycho-Structural Associations, Psychogeography, and Semiotics
DMX - Mickey Mouse: Automatic Constructions of Psycho-Structural Associations (2021)
"Contact" the Game
My friends and I used to play this word association game called Contact where one chosen person thinks of a chosen word (ex: "Simultaneous") and the rest of the players must guess the word. The catch is... the chosen person will only reveal one letter of the word at a time (ex: "S").
The players' main goal is to get the chosen person to reveal as many letters as possible, with the ultimate goal of guessing the chosen word. To do this the players must think of a word that begins with the revealed letter (ex: "Silly") and give a one-word hint to the other players (ex: "Funny"). If another player thinks they know what word is being hinted at they must say "Contact".
The chosen person would then guess the word being hinted at -- if they guess right, the players must think of a different word, but if they guess wrong, the players then count down 3...2...1... and shout the word simultaneously (ex: "Silly!"). If the players say the same word the chosen person must reveal the next letter (ex: "S...I...") and so on until the chosen word is finally guessed correctly by the players.
"Associations" the Game
There was also this other game we called "Associations" where players had to count down 3...2...1... say a random word and try to eventually say the same word. In Round #1, players would say their first word simultaneously (ex: Player #1 - "Turkey"; Player #2 - "Fitness"; Player #3 - "School"). In Round #2, players say a new word that they think will be closer to what other players would say (ex: Player #1 - "Trot"; Player #2 - "Holiday"; Player #3 - "Feast"). This goes on until all players eventually say the same word (ex: "Thanksgiving").
The Experiment
I was curious about the connection between symbols and how the human brain forms what I called "Psycho-Structural Associations" through generational memories and first-hand experiences. I wanted to create a new game via Wikipedia where I tried to go from a starting word to a final word. In this case, I wanted to get from the "DMX" Wikipedia page and only click on hyperlinks until I reached the "Mickey Mouse" Wikipedia page.
The experiment revealed how over time the Wikipedia universe created structural associations between ideas represented by blue hyperlinks -- this is similar to how human brains create associations between ideas (ex: "Red" is associated with "Color" which is associated with "Spectrum" which is associated with "Internet" and so on). By surfacing images that represent these small connections, I was able to see a trajectory of ideas shifting from DMX to Mickey Mouse. I saw how symbols relate to each other, bouncing from one place in our mind to another, and triggering another.
I also created this dissolution visualization where I stacked all images on top of one another with different opacity settings -- both ends of the spectrum (DMX and Mickey Mouse) had 0% opacity while the center image had 100% opacity. This showed what was truly in the middle: the concept of Capitalism. As we look down the tunnel from both directions, we see all these symbolic layers that eventually reach the concept a Capitalism -- a perfect simulacrum for the reality of our society.
