Below is a text published before the experiment on the the Visual Artists Ireland e-bulletin and on Circa Arts Magazine website:

With 'The Mohni Experiment' Paul Murnaghan will attempt to exhibit a specific image in the dreams of a selected audience. The process is part of ongoing ontological research embracing popular ideologies and technologies that underpin many contemporary belief structures. This attempt at neo-spatial exhibition will take place from the 16th to the 18th of July, the experiment will be concentrated on the island of Mohni off the coast of Estonia. Mohni is a relatively young island that rose out of the sea some 3,000 years ago, it has a rich history evolving from it's diverse past under Pirate, Monastic and Soviet control.

Murnaghan will draw on the theories of Aldous Huxley, Carl Jung and Edgar Cayce amongst others to inform the methodology behind this process. Part of the experiment involves the repeated drawing of a simple image and people are invited to engage with this process as a communicative device. Several intensive strategies will be pursued on Mohni Island with a view towards transmission, experience and reception of the image, though in the context of Jung's 'Universal Unconscious' distance is of no importance. Those that wish to participate should follow the instructions below focusing activity on the 16th, 17th and 18th of July.

Instructions

· Right click and download the attached image.

· Draw this image as often as possible.

· Carry the image with you at all times.

· Keep the image beside your bed for contemplation before sleeping.

· The drinking of Valerian tea is encouraged before contemplation and sleep, it is inexpensive and may be purchased in most health food shops.

· A meditation on the pulse may also be useful here, listen to your heartbeat and become comfortable with it, then count it at a slower pace eventually matching the two beats.

If you find the image or essence of the image occurring in your dream life please document this experience and send the text to mail@paulmurnaghan.com

The Mohni Experiment is supported by The Academy of Arts in Tallinn, Estonia.

End.

The Mohni Experiment continued a process of transposition of imagery between physical and subconscious space. It reversed the action of the previous work 'a line describing nothings' (the LAB 2008) where hypnotically regressed volunteers described their past lives to waiting artists. Descriptions were made physical as drawings and text.

With this work something visual from 'here' was placed in an intangible realm, where it still resides. The experiment partly functioned as a curatorial attempt to explore other space, a subconscious space that an artwork may often first affect. To put it in context, if we can find sculpture in the space of human relations or exhibit in temporal space*, an imageplaced inside of the subconscious mind of an individual through a process of belief, ritual and manipulation was considered as a visual construct placed within a psychological or conceptual realm.

The above image was induced to appear in the dreams of the experiment's participants at an allotted time. Though the symbol (Finn's The Arc of Being) seems Celtic, its form appears in many cultures. In this case, the three main elements represent past, present and future, the overlapping area represents a 'now' or 'an everywhere'. An invitation to join in the experiment was published on the Circa website, VAI e-bulletin and their Estonian counterparts.

Participants engaged in a process of meditation and drawing of the image, ritual drinking of a prescribed concoction and hynopaedia* This was informed by writings and beliefs from the early part of the last century, texts by Carl Jung and Aldous Huxley as well as techniques inherent to propaganda and media that are a part of out daily lives. The experiment utilised belief, to conjure an image using various methodologies adherent to religious, political and defunct belief systems. The starting point was a juxtaposition of the Internet and Jung's Universal Unconscious as communication tools in this process. The Mohni Experiment attempted to unite many disparate forms of belief including contemporary 'faiths' in technology and art, in one syncretic artwork.

Mohni is a relatively young island that rose out of the sea some 3,000 years ago, it has a rich history evolving from it's diverse past under Pirate, Monastic and Soviet control. The Estonian and Russian participants were all artists from The Academy of Arts in Tallinn and each of them had been mediating the above image for several weeks before coming to the island for a three-day intensive period of ritual, experimentation and discussion. Other participants took part in these exercises in Dublin at exactly the same time and attempted interaction on an astral plane. A text documenting the life and works of the Dublin philosopher and spiritual scientist Sean Finn (1889 - 1942) was circulated, his experiments and his influence were discussed and his image placed around the living quarters for the purpose of meditation.

As to the question of 'success', this project takes the form of a process based artwork and functioned as a social experiment considering how belief is structered and utilised in our lives. That said, several participants in Ireland and Estonia did experienced the image in their dreams. It became a looping journey for some, continually walking the lines of the image, another participant 'became' the actual image whilst others experienced it as an identified presence.

With special thanks to Kaido Ole, all of the participants and The Academy of Arts in Tallinn, Estonia.

*(Philippe Parreno's - 'Taking up two hours of time rather than ten meters of space')

* (Sleep learning, as practiced in Huxley's 'Brave New World' - a sound work was constructed using the brain frequency modulation of Alpha waves and spoken word, this was played on a loop at night in the sleeping quarters)