Production Unit
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PRODUCTION UNIT PROJECT
“To be defined from without is, in principle, to be distracted within.” F.H. Bradley
The Production Unit is a collective name for several different individual Units. Each began as a number – Production Unit #5, #4 etc. – who was housed in a self-contained domestic dwelling. Stimulus was passed to a Unit (e.g. journalistic material, eyewitness accounts of external events etc.), with the express intention being the production of a body of work, the work then being passed to a superior body for inspection before supply to the outside world. The medium of the work was not specified, and thus could take any form.
Over time, it became apparent that certain Units were biased towards sculpture, prose etc., which specifically goes against the expressed aims and objectives of the project as outlined below:
1) The eradication of the personal ego of each unit, creating a human blank page
2) Obfuscation of “editorialisation of the mind” through apparently random stimuli, with a nonetheless set agenda
3) A remoulding of consciousness into a collective whole through subconscious psychological conditioning
4) Subsequent forging of an actual unitary,multi-locational mind
5) The use of this collective ‘person’ for set goals
The factioning of certain units into the use of specific stylistic mores posed serious questions about the viability of the project, which were documented in the scientific journals of the day. It became apparent that, per point 1) above, certain physical brain states were embedded into the psyche through overuse of repeated patterns of behaviour from an early age. With the use of new, younger test specimens, this difficulty was overcome.
Moreover, it was observed that the naming of individual Units with Production Unit numbers ran counter to the ethos of the project. While this had been originally perceived as a necessary evil for the team administrators, enabling them to refer to individual Units more easily, it was soon clear that the full effects of point 4) above were not being achieved. Later, Units were given an insignia which denoted a Unit number without their knowledge. References to John Searle’s ‘Chinese Room’ thought experiment were widely made in various philosophical journals, as the names of the Units were still able to be used in their presence, embedded with meaning, without a Unit’s awareness of that meaning.
Throughout the lifetime of the experiment, concerns have been raised as to its ethical standards. It is the unequivocal view of the administration that no subjects have been mentally harmed through their use in the project, and that any misunderstandings regarding the work done can be swiftly disregarded given a full overview of the agenda of the team administration, the greater scientific community, and the legislative and governmental bodies which ultimately guide these. Any legal proceedings have, to date, ultimately borne out this interpretation.
