I'm not really well-focused atm with the virus pandemic and not having seen anyone I know in ages but I have been compiling lots of stuff. 

There's one concept that keeps bugging me - within this phenomena in my research of two opposing forces occurring in almost all things... I think any real inquiry should start with self and so psychoanalysis leads me to the conscious and subconscious - or unconscious (depending on who you're into and whose pathways of thought you prefer) mind and/or presence.  Earlier in the course, someone in my class said and mentioned something in class/lecture that I think about regularly but I was opposed at least on the surface at the time to any pathway towards it. There is in, or realized off the back of, many cultures, sciences, and fictitious/sci-fy evolutionary outcomes of earth and humans this idea of all creatures becoming one. We'll unify into one consciousness. My classmate's idea was that it's all love and unification and this shell we all share will bring harmony. My immediate problem with this is - will psychopaths be able to live in equality in this designed platform of existence or will anything, in terms of psychology, leading up to the psychopath be assimilated onto said platform without issue? Psychopaths, vastly misunderstood but absolutely something to look out for, denote an almost perfect depart from your average Joe in terms of their psyche and responses to the environment (personality disorders have always amazed me.) The reason this whole concept keeps nagging me is because of those earlier two opposing forces. We, probably, can surmise that this new platform for existence will have something to do with the internet - which is after all a network - networks being idiosyncratic of all life, matter and negative matter. The internet I grasped properly in the Datafied project is different from what it was in the beginning. It has become a mining tool for our surveillance and en-mass control. I think en-mass control is such an important thing to think about. If the internet we see is somehow consciousness or a utility of its evolutionary design - what is its counterpart relating to the subconscious (or unconscious?) The Dark Web/The Deep Web. 

I have without realizing referenced the dark web so much this past year but have never actually used it. So in this realization, I now have a quest to learn all about it (safely.) It is, after all, one of the most incredibly taboo and terrifying resources. But why? (The following is entirely speculative and to open up thought - I do realize what I'm talking about and you never know what peoples impression of you might be:)  Knowing what the government hides from us is like holding a bomb that might explode (I imagine,) buying a gun isn't allowed for whatever reason, and we're told our media immediately available to us is explicit enough... there is no place for this bottomless hidden nemesis - and counterpart - of our permitted unifying interwebs. In thinking about this I come to the conclusion that we are so incredibly removed from our unconscious (or sub-conscious) and I think the dark web is emblematic of that. If we are eventually, if not somewhat already, given a unifying platform to exist within by an 'elite' group of people then we are only proving how incredibly fucking stupid and lackluster we are. 

Why this is all-important is because I have really been focusing on my meditation and my reading recently and everything takes me back to consciousness. I believe, by developing a relationship with our immediate platform we understand bit by bit what's on the other side of the water's surface. I think consciousness might be limitless or infinite and so I can only come to the conclusion that the other side of the coin resembles something similar. 

Oh but why all of this is actually important is because if we look inward we actually find that we are already all unified. And by looking inward our 'dark' counterparts aren't all that scary and they're manageable. I think needing to *emulate* a thing that is already there is overdone. Consciousness might account for all things - even that negative space where before we thought wavefunction collapsed and this outcome we piece together from our senses was considered the only thing there is. 

Why have we been designed by this really weak but violent collective to be so stupid?  

I think some fear the idea of the cyclical existence while clinging to it wholeheartedly - however, it may actually be a false interpretation of 'all that is.' I mean as physics pushes the mind and reality into this void and tangible but at the same time comfortably intangible infinity our modes of understanding anything or simply *being* could, given people are empowered to have the courage to ask more questions, one day amount  to something that looks like less of an escape from the dark age (ties in with subconscious/unconscious.)  I mean the icecaps are crumbling at such a rate that our sea levels rose at least 2mm in the past two months. We are fucked to the point where we, as a collective, either implode or change. That this isn't reported AT ALL in the media, potentially, makes coronavirus seem more ominous or designed (by us or the Earth) than, I think, we're being made to think. 

I feel I can understand the fear and the pain that some find in reality. The extended platform of our being and its capacity for equilibrium outweigh and will inevitably cripple the system we frame ourselves with. I understand but am repulsed by how plugged into a machine we are that we have no input on beyond our capacity to submit to it, and if you're lucky you can repackage and crystalize it for others. The answer for this as I mentioned I believe exists inward towards consciousness - not in a hippie peace and love way but as a pathway to finding the self tangible without the need for it being programmed and a photocopy. 

References

Sigmund Freud

Carl Yung 

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzche 

The End of Evangelion 

Ouroboros symbolism

Ghost In The Shell 

Theory of everything

Datafied project 

(these obvs spiral out but it was a long enough post as it is.) 

 Afterthoughts:

I honestly thought via studying art, media and understanding what - contextually and personally - informs my inquiry I would need to issue repackaging, emulating, simulating life as a sort of end-game or career so as to participate and find value in the process (I know I'm only a few months into being a student again but bare with me.) I think, for example, video games can be an effective tool with multiple uses but what makes it - or any media or work or action - worthwhile is enabling inquiry in others instead of just removing them further from the self. If someone wants to submit or buy into anything then I think by what to measure that individual's choice is their level of awareness. I think via 'consolidating practice' I've really learned that this course (and hopefully BA) is a place where you can go right off the map and put stock in being interested in things outside of 'just art.' 

I really liked the results offered within this emulation of Wind Waker. This is the beginning of the game - where usually you would start with three hearts and no access to magic - I was able to, via gecko and AR code give Link 20 hearts as well as a full bar of magic. I was able to make these infinite. As well as this I was able to make free the game's camera giving me POV usually unavailable to the user of the software.

I got to thinking: if I were able to induce a similar process via the reality immediate to me, by having my consciousness input to a different physical shell (if it were possible,) might I also be able to allow the information uploaded some awareness of the frameworks that I am designed to exist within. Could I, with that information available to me, incarnate with knowledge of how to maneuver my being into consolidating materials and matter needed to more readily and correctly exist in a reality. Say I'm born into a world and manage to attain a quicker knowledge of how things work or already be born with that knowledge could I exist more potently?

I really like the questions this experiment within Dolphin software raised. I liked the free view camera exploitation also. On top of the exploitation of giving me more means than I usually would typically at this stage within the game's world-line, being able to alter the POV and access parts of the world I am yet unable to see made me think of the things I had earned with my ability to alter the game's code and what other questions I may ask. 

Having a way to open up my research around the philosophical or scientific questions that arise when we can conceptualize space-time, casual paradoxes as well as parallel universes is how I want to move forward in developing this project. 

Using android software I am able to emulate NFC tags and bypass Nintendo's Ammibo ecosystem. I own the relevant hardware and purchased it so as to avoid issues around legality. Amiibo is essentially a money-making gimmick which takes form in cards or figurines with an NFC chip implanted into them. These give you certain perks and extras within the games that you purchase from Nintendo. I used this code within The Legend of Zelda: Breathe of The Wild. 

I didn't anticipate that compatibility issues still are present when emulating N64 software. Years ago when I was more invested in the emulator community I understood this but with time this hasn't been remedied. This is the case even though the video game emulator community is huge and the demand to play retro or old platforms on recent hardware has increased. 

I am more used to emulating within Windows. While I could continue to run Windows via OS X's boot camp something just doesn't feel right about that at this stage. I want to be able to work and adapt within the ecosystem of my current daily computer. Due to this I am coming up against a horde of setbacks. Doing the things I am hoping to do for some reason is more complicated within OS X. I may opt for 3DS or Gamecube ports of the N64 games I was hoping to emulate - failing that try other games later in the series where I can emulate with software that's seen a lot of recent focus from developers.