Calin DAN

LOST TOYS
(House of the Shaman 2)

LOST TOYS is an informal data base of images coming from various content pools (art history, military history, anatomy, biology, architecture, history of science). The source images originate from various old media platforms (alchemy books, wood cut prints, news papers & magazines), are translated into digital formats and processed according to a simple set of rules. Those rules (color inference and dynamic disruption) are meant to displace the intentional topics from the rationale of Western culture into a ground where playfulness gives a chance of survival to a content apparently obsolete. LOST TOYS belongs to a series of events/objects/theoretical texts analyzing the under stream of shaman rituals coexisting with various aspects of the Western civilization.

[A reason. Shamanism is the most ancient and probably the most resistant form of religion, with traces that go back to the first associations of hunters. The explanation of this longevity might reside, among other factors, in two characteristic:

a. the links shaman rituals have always had with the deepest levels of human psyche, as proved by cross disciplinary research, going from the history of religion to psycho-analysis;

b. the biological argumentation of shaman rituals, as proved indirectly by modern physiology and genetics, with a specific emphasis on the cyclic rhythms of organic regeneration, the reaction to chemical stimulants of natural origin, etc.]

- Lost Toys -
Visuals: Calin Dan
Animation: Mathieu van den Berk
Sound: Rainier Kurpershoek