Grant Mooney and Elias Scheer Confront Electromagnetism

At the core of Grant Mooney’s interest in sculpture is electromagnetism. What happens when matter is acted upon by electromagnetic forces? How do materials slowly change under the invisible pressures of electroplating or vibration? How can bits of matter attract, bind and potentially “become” each other? 

Scientists (and spiritualists) have been looking at electromagnetic energy for a long time. In the late 19th century, they believed it might finally explain everything that seemed to exceed the visible world. In the context of today’s omnipresent digital infrastructure, electromagnetic forces have begun to feel a bit less mystical. And yet, somehow, the same phenomena that give off radiation from a distant star also give us the ability to think, perceive, and feel. 

Elias Scheer is a neuroscientist who studies how electromagnetic stimulation of neural tissue produces changes in mood, perception, and inner experience—and why, even now, we have no complete account of how physical forces become feelings. 

For this event, they ask each other what electromagnetic energy actually does—to metals, to neurons, to the line between the measurable and the experienced. Elias undergoes a live Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) demonstration, providing a real-time verbal account of his internal state as magnetic pulses are directed at different regions of his brain. 

TMS device provided by Radial.