The Interstellar Journey Cryonic Sleep Motion Tracker

Initially this experiment has been developed by NASA and JPL in the early 1960s. Astronauts should be tested for their ability to cope with sensory deprivation during long term flights in space.
Later psychologists employed the test setup for experiments on peri-personal space, imaginary body response and phantom limbs.
The basic setup is that of a cryonic sleeping tank onboard an interstellar ship. The test person is supposed to go to a colony planet in another solar system. After takeoff the intelligent ship routinely monitors the frozen passengers in deep sleep. During this check a malfunction shows in the cryotank of the testperson: His or her EEG reveals actual brain activity just below full conscioussness, but he or she is totally deprived of all actual sensual perceptions, neither able to move nor feel any bodily sensation.
In order to entertain the poor devil for the remaining 10 years of the trip, the ship starts to trigger certain memories, especially from happy childhood times.
A series of tests seemed to indicate that a high number of people would start to grow imaginary body parts and perform unknown motion sequences. The test was prohibited by federal law in the late 1970s after some severe accusations of former test persons in connection with drug experiments by the US army.

In collaboration w/ Philipp Haupt.
Performed at Tanzquartier Wien, research lab "absent interfaces", 12/05.