HOW HEAVY ARE MY THOUGHTS
(2003)

heavythoughtsweblightthoughtsweb

How Heavy Are My Thoughts is a lecture performance based on the fascination with the language expression «heavy thoughts», a metaphor relating a physical, bodily quality of the adjective “heavy” to the mental concept of the noun “thoughts”.

In most of the literature it is stated that the weight of an adult human brain varies between 1,300 –1,500 g, depending on age and gender. The weight of a human head is between 4 and 6 kg. Those statistics were, however, made on the account of a single measurement per person. Is it possible that our head weighs differently depending on our mental, physical, emotional or physiological state? Where do the thoughts reside in our body? Can they be “scanned”? Do they have colour or taste? Are they waves? Can we exist without them?

Highjacking the format of a lecture, the performance creates a narrative about research into the diverse qualities of thought(s), linking it to a series of events that changed the life of I’M. Starting in the middle of the night when I’M wakes up in her one bedroom apartment and asks herself a question: « If my thoughts are heavier than usual, is my head heavier than usual too? »

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Concept & direction: Ivana Müller
in close collaboration with: Bill Aitchison and Nils De Coster

The performance was made with the participation of Prof. F. Siemsen (physicist – D), Prof. Bojana Kunst (philosopher – SLO), Prof. W.A. Wagenaar (psychologist – NL), Dr.Christian Röder (psychiatrist – D), Alexandra Thiel (trampoline instructor -D) and I.M’s 50 friends.

How Heavy Are My Thoughts was co-produced by Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt am Main and Theater Gasthuis Amsterdam.

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