Statement

I am indebted to Dr. Seuss for his children’s story Horton Hears a Who, which stunned me out of the ordinary as a child. While Horton could hear creatures living on a tiny particle, his friends could not hear them and denied their existence. This first gave me the idea that worlds may exist even if we cannot perceive them. What a concept—reality may not be what it seems! This cracked open my imagination. I thought, what hidden wonders are there to discover? As an artist, I am inspired by things that lie at the edge of perception. I am curious about how we as humans understand phenomena and what it reveals about the nature of mind and reality. Buddhist philosophy and its practice of meditation, with over two millennia of mental discovery and understanding which continue to this day, have historically offered much insight on the nature of mind and reality. In addition, contemporary neuroscientific research on meditators has demonstrated beneficial changes in the structure and function of the practitioner’s brain and their emotional wellbeing. I am moved to express these subjective and objective explorations through art. This can be in the form of animation, experimental film, new media, or art-science and interdisciplinary collaborations. Looking ahead, I am captivated by how a Buddhist model of mind may offer knowledge towards the positive development of the future of mind, AI, and diverse intelligences.