NATURE WITHIN

INTER SERIES: Part I

A shared field of attention. One person at a time.

Nature Within is the first chapter of the INTER series.

The series investigates perceptual ecology. It explores how listening functions as part of natural systems rather than as an external observation of them.

This is not a spiritual claim. It is a structural and phenomenological inquiry.

The Work

Nature Within unfolds as a one to one encounter.

One participant.
One shared temporal space.
One evolving perceptual field.

The participant wears an EEG sensor. Brainwave activity modulates a generative visual system in real time. A subtle spatial sound field supports sustained attention.

The system operates as a feedback loop. Perception shapes form. Form reorganizes perception.

The work does not interpret thoughts.
It does not diagnose.
It does not promise transformation.

Instead, it creates a bounded perceptual environment where attention becomes visible as movement, density, and fluctuation.

Here, nature refers to the ecology of perception itself. Breath, arousal, focus, instability, and regulation are part of this ecology.

One to One Festival, Oeiras

Presented at the One to One Festival in Portugal, the work sharpened into its essential structure. Trust, attentional precision, and quiet intensity were held within a historical industrial site.

Kehä Festival, Oulu

In Oulu, the piece was experienced again as a one to one encounter within a theatre context and also within a mental health rehabilitation community setting. The structure proved capable of holding diverse cognitive and sensory conditions without prescribing engagement.

Care emerged from stability rather than instruction.

Structure and Autonomy

The spatial dramaturgy follows a clear principle.

Intensity at the center.
Rest at the periphery.

Participants may engage deeply or remain at the edges.
They may withdraw at any time.

Participation is voluntary and non performative.

The installation functions as a temporary retreat condition. It is a stable temporal frame in which perceptual habits may become noticeable. No belief system is implied and no outcome is prescribed.

Clarity may emerge, but never through coercion.

Origins and Context

Nature Within was developed during a residency in Outokumpu in 2024. It began as a studio based inquiry into long term contemplative practice, EEG sensing, and generative real time visuals developed in TouchDesigner.

EEG is treated strictly as an interface. It externalizes subtle shifts in attention without interpreting or validating them. Over time, figurative traces dissolve into abstraction as neural frequencies reorganize the visual field.

Philosophical Ground

Listening is not separate from environment. It is an ecological process. Human perception is not outside nature. It is one of its expressions.

The work asks:

What becomes visible when attention observes its own movement
How does perception reorganize when held within a stable frame

A dialogue with Akasaka articulates this inquiry. Art becomes a method for examining the structure of perception.

Toward Art and Science Contexts

INTER extends beyond individual encounters toward research oriented contexts.

Current directions include real time EEG and perceptual feedback systems, microscope based investigations of micro ecological structures, and maritime and coastal environments where breath and atmosphere intersect.

The aim is not to represent nature. It is to examine how perception reorganizes in relation to environment across scales.

Collaboration

The next chapters of INTER will unfold in maritime and coastal environments in 2026.

INTER is open for research partnerships, residency invitations, and institutional collaboration within art, science, and ecological inquiry.

For inquiries and collaboration
jaakkoaution@gmail.com

Nature Within marks the beginning of this trajectory.