Walking on Mai Mind is an installation/responsive environment that probes the Mai research project conducted at OKNO.
Mai is an attempt to make an artificial mind, an algorithm that tries to emulate basic cognitive processes such as perception, associations and analogies.

As the participant enters the installation, he stimulates Mai's mind, provoking her to generate sound and visuals, drastically changing the environment.
The shapes and sounds emitted into the space are a representation of her mental processes.
By walking on the networks that constitute her mind, the participant manipulates the processes at several levels, not unlike a neurosurgeon stimulating the brain of his patient.
The particpant in turn is influenced by the output, looking for patterns, engaging in tactics to find a form of harmony and symbiosis.
At times reactions are obvious, at others more complex. As Mai and the partcipant adapt to the situation, interactions and mental processes on both sides become more creative and interesting, with emergent, complex output as a result.


Perhaps an appropriate point would be that the authors consider the aesthetic, conceptual and technical aspects of the work equal in importance. The balance we are after is that the work should be compelling to both informed and less informed members of the audience, to active and less active particpants of the installation.