Yesterday I met Mark Farid, introduced through a mutual friend. He’s an artist and CSM lecturer whose practice explores the intersection between the virtual and physical worlds, examining how new technologies shape individuals’ sense of self and collective perception. Very relevant! Here are the main discussion points and takeaways.
His main challenge: Insight doesn’t equal change
“OK, so you get people to put their attention on their thoughts and they have some sort of realisation. That was hard to keep track; my mind was on autopilot; I never realised how many thoughts I had etc.
But so what? What do people do now? Will they just go back to day to day life as normal and immediately move on? What’s the point unless there’s real change?”
It’s a valid point.
He also referenced a Taiwanese artist who administered tiny electric shocks to participants in a room – and everyone was dancing around involuntarily in unison. His point was that sometimes a more direct, embodied experience is needed to genuinely shift behaviour rather than just create momentary awareness.
Is education enough?
If someone completes ThoughtCounter and discovers they had 21 thoughts in 60 seconds – so what?
The point is – do I need an art project to tell people they have 6-60k thoughts per day?
There’s a fundamental difference between:
- Knowing you have 6,000-60,000 thoughts per day (information)
- Experiencing first-hand that your thoughts are uncontrollable, automatic, arising from nowhere (direct experience)
ThoughtCounter is about experiencing. But his challenge goes further – saying that even direct experience may not be enough without some consequence or some embodied element that makes the realisation stick.
The questions being: what if there was a consequence to each thought? What if the experience was unavoidably physical rather than just cognitive?
Alternative approaches
The gap between thoughts
What if the investigation wasn’t about counting thoughts but about finding the gaps between them? An acid trip reference came up in the conversation – the altered perception of time and thought that makes normally invisible mental processes suddenly visible.
The gap between thoughts is perhaps what ThoughtCounter points toward rather than what it delivers. In meditation practice, noticing the gap is a deeper level of the same inquiry – thoughts first, then the gaps, then what exists in the gaps (awareness itself). This actually maps naturally onto the five aggregates progression – making it a potential future investigation rather than a modification of ThoughtCounter itself.
Reversing the question
Mark suggested flipping the investigation entirely. Instead of “how many thoughts do I have?” – what about “how many thoughts can I have?” Deliberately trying to generate thoughts might actually reveal their automatic nature more quickly than passively counting them. When you try to manufacture thoughts intentionally, you discover almost immediately that you can’t control them any more than you can when they arise on their own.
This could be a second mode within ThoughtCounter – the contrast between the two experiences potentially revealing something neither could achieve alone.
Working backwards
If the end goal is meaningful behavioural change in relation to thoughts, Mark suggested outlining the the 20 steps that lead there…
A rough illustration:
- Notice you have thoughts (ThoughtCounter)
- Notice thoughts are automatic
- Notice thoughts are impermanent
- Notice the gap between thoughts
- Notice what observes thoughts
- Sustained practice and integration
- Behavioural change in daily life
ThoughtCounter opens a doorway for further exploration. What happens beyond that is the question that will drive everything from here.
Funding
Golden rule of funding
Look at who funds the funder. The application needs to hit what that initial funder cares about – not just what the organisation says it wants. Do the research one level up and tailor everything accordingly.
Also pitch the same project in different ways depending on who I’m applying to. ie. ThoughtCounter can be classed as an art project, a science project, a tech project, and a contemplative investigation – depending on who’s reading it.
Funding sources
EU Funding (potentially requires EU passport):
- Creative Cultures – worth investigating
- EMAP (European Media Artist Platform) – Mark rated this highly
- EU Horizon – larger research funding
- S+T+Arts – science, technology and arts specifically
UK Resources:
- Axis Art – £3 p/month membership, good for open calls, grants and resources
- A-N (Artists Network) – £17 p/month, useful but doesn’t cover EU funding
Arts Council England:
- Worth applying but their focus is heavily weighted toward disadvantaged communities
Self-funding :
- Mark seeded his own projects initially
- Used budgets from other projects to cross-fund
- Took a £10k loan to fund one project when needed
- All his funding history is public on his website
Next steps
- Update study statement to incorporate the potential for deeper enquiry = real change
- Review the ‘alternative approaches’ and wireframe how this might work in practice
- Meet Mia Taylor who runs the MA Art & Science programme at CSM