Lucid Dreaming

A Conversation with Dr. George O'Mara

Due to an extraordinary set of circumstances, including an unusually pressing number of personal and professional duties, I have given over my column this month to Karen Elliot, who is the corresponding secretary for the Hudson Valley Psychogeographical Society. I expect to return to the column next month. In the meantime, please enjoy Ms. Elliot’s interview with local art and science pioneer Dr. George O’Mara.

I went to visit George O’Mara on a bitterly cold day a few weeks ago, interested to learn more about this unsung local legend. His office/studio bears all the marks of an omnivorous intellect, cluttered with everything from old vacuum tubes and laboratory equipment to a theremin to a number of found-object sculptures in various states of assemblage. A TV monitor in the corner looped silently through a tape of the notorious Zapruder home movie of the Kennedy assassination, as Dr. O’Mara cleared a small gap through the towering stacks of files and yellowing newspaper clippings that had devoured his desk, so that we could sit down and discuss his work and recent activities. Following is an edited transcription of our chat. —Karen Elliot

Karen Elliot: I first became aware of your work through the Hudson Valley Psychogeographical Society. Could you tell me how you got involved with that group?

George O’Mara: I had first encountered the discipline of psychogeography during my student days at Oxford, where there was a very active society. As you know, the practice involves the study of the specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals. When I first came here [to the Hudson Valley] some 20 years ago, it seemed quite natural to me to continue this study in this most deeply charged of geographical environments. There is such variation here—I once took some measurements at Olana [Hudson River School painter Frederick Church’s home] that literally ran off the top of the charts. And then there’s that one unexplained dead patch of negative transference on the south side of New Paltz…none of us in the Society has yet been able to properly account for that one.

KE: While it’s easy enough to understand the significant influence of geography on human behavior, I understand you have also extended your research into the enormous influence of electronic media?

GO: My first breakthrough after years of spiritual struggle was the insight that what was needed was not something, but nothing, as the Buddhist sages pointed out. Here the vacuum tube comes in to play. Sir William Crookes, pioneer of the vacuum tube and para-psychologist, first noted “Crookes dark space” in 1887. Crookes foresaw that the vacuum tubes could be used to contain and control spiritual entities/demons/elementala, what have you. With the perfection of radio frequency amplification and television frequency modulation, these beings could be made visible and man could see into the higher dimensional spaces. I had hoped, with the recent advances in digital tuning, spirits could be controlled and made to do man’s bidding, without the tiresome spiritual disciplines of the ancients. But after several disastrous experiments, I concluded that these disciplines hold their place in the modern laboratory setting. I therefore enhanced my spiritual safety measures in handling these beings.

KE: But what role is left for art in all this? Does not the artist also use non-material spirit to influence and cajole the viewer into experiencing what one might call a “higher dimension”?

GO: Art may indeed have such an effect, however the precise relationship of the means to the result is far less clear. In fact, from a certain perspective, it may appear that art is far more symptomatic than causative in such cases. The whole string of non-objective painters from Kandinsky and Malevich on to Mondrian and the rest had all convinced themselves of the realities of the fourth dimension to such a point that their artwork became a sort of bridge back to the rest of the world, inviting the rest of us along. Symptom, you see, not really a cause at all.

KE: But what about the SADS show you are organizing for Deep Listening Space? Could you tell me more about that?

GO: We will be exploring the combination of an ambient environmental condition (Seasonal Affective Disorder Syndrome, or SADS) which results from the lack of sufficient exposure to sunlight with creative work that engages a corollary symptomological range of expression. It should be especially interesting to see how exposure to light-based media (by that I mean film and video, primarily) may or may not counteract the seasonal tendency, dependent of course on the content of the particular work at hand. What I’m looking for here is a way to divine the relative functional influences of form and content. To this end, we will enhance the space with multi-sensory input, including a roster of sad songs from sad musicians, a little nasty spoken word, comfort food, and later on in the evening, a clown who can make wiener dog balloons. The resulting festive atmosphere should provide a unique environment for the experience of both art and science.

KE: Has there been much interest in this project from local artists?

GO: We have a growing list of artist-collaborators for the exhibition, including Tom Wertz, Brendan Burke, Phil Zimmerman, Judith Mohns, Francois Deschamps, Steve Bradford, and perhaps most on point here, Rachel C. McRoberts, who creates work connected with her training as a therapeutic art educator who works with children.

The emotive stimulation/reception of the work is the aspect that has most captivated the artists that I’ve spoken with, as might be expected. We will be monitoring the events at the opening quite closely, with an eye to publishing some preliminary results in one of the major psychogeographical journals. The input of local artists in a project like this is essential—if we were to bring work up from New York City, for example, the geographically specific resonance of the results would be skewed. The country is so different from the city, as you well know—have you ever noticed how much happier people are when in the presence of a pony?

KE: Thank you for your time, Dr. O’Mara. It’s been very enlightening.

SADS Show, February 3rd through March 4th at The Gallery at Deep Listening Space, 73-75 Broadway, Kingston, (845) 338-5984. The opening will be held from 5:30-11 PM on Saturday, February 3rd. Live music begins at 7:30. For more information on the Hudson Valley Psychogeographical Society, e-mail hvpsychogeo@yahoo.com.