Sensory deprivation tanks in the media: FRINGE on FOX

What can you say... Altered States in 2008.

AUTOEROTICA, East Bay Express Critics choice this week

EAST BAY EXPRESS

CRITIC'S CHOICE

AutoErotica

"Nobody with a good car needs to be justified," declared one of Flannery O'Connor's fictional characters, accurately assessing America's century-long embrace of the gospel of gasoline with all the fervor that any jealous, justifying god could want. Prayerful motoring has declined these days, what with the rising cost of burnt offerings, so AutoErotica, a nostalgic/satirical look at our gearhead folkways, is both timely and timeless. Here are Philip Hall's romantic digital photographs of exotic 1930s Bugattis and Delahayes, and iconic, resplendently finned 1950s Vettes and Caddies; Bill Silveira's eccentric, humorous sculptures made from salvaged auto and other mechanical parts -- including a '55 Cadillac front end mounted like a taxidermied animal head; and Laurel True's gritty but elegant alt-material mosaics, immortalizing anonymous patches of roadway replete with skidmarks, cracks, and potholes. Through September 6 at theFloatCenter (1091 Calcot Pl., #116, Oakland).510-535-1702 (call for hours).

-- By DeWitt Cheng

Voted Best of the bay, by the SF Bay Guardian!

BEST DRUG-FREE ALTERED STATE

Kelly Vogel at Float: Best Drug-Free Altered Stat
GUARDIAN PHOTO BY CHARLES RUSSO

Sometimes other people are just too much to bear. And it's always their fault, isn't it? The guy at the liquor store forgets to stock your brand of cigarettes. Some yuppie in a fancy car nearly runs you off the road. Your manager fires you, your landlord evicts you, your friends diss you. Don't you wish you could just make them all disappear for a while? Well, if you've ever seen the movie Altered States, you know all about sensory deprivation chambers, those weird water tanks psychology students use to study brain chemistry and sleep cycles. In a deprivation chamber you are utterly alone. Your body is suspended in warm water, your ears are submerged so you can't hear a thing, and it's totally dark, odorless, and soundproof. The entire world melts away, and you're left with raw brain waves. Outside of a ketamine trip, it's the most detached experience humanly possible. Lose yourself at Float, then, an art gallery with a room full of deprivation tanks.

1091 Calcot Place, Unit 116, Oakl. (510) 535-1702, www.thefloatcenter.com

The Art of Floatation won … Best of The East Bay Award 2008!

BEST ART GALLERY/ALPHA-WAVE RETREAT

The Float Center

1091 Calcot Pl., Ste. 116, Oakland, 510-535-1702, TheFloatCenter.com

Stressed — us? The electronic workplace — the paperless office — was going to end all that, wasn't it? Remember when the Internet was supposed to make work obsolete? Okay, the future was way oversold, and now instead we're all prey to Madison Avenue 24/7/365, and right on track for the chummy billboards of Minority Report, and Too Much Information. Flotation is one solution; it's the modern equivalent of the monastic retreats of the early Christian Desert Fathers — except that we don't have to live in a cave or hole (like Terry Jones' jumping gymnosophist in The Life of Brian) — just spend an hour in body-temperature saline water and silent darkness every now and then. Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST), to use its original designation, vanquishes stress and increases alpha-wave activity and endorphin levels (relieving chronic pain); it improves blood circulation, energy, and concentration; it also detoxifies the body and lowers blood pressure. The Float Center features a professionally curated art gallery as well (co-owner Alison Walton is an artist), by the way, with colorful, intriguing contemporary paintings and sculptures, so your eyes will get a treat both before and after tank time.

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It’s not really Alpha, unless you’re playing with a robot in the gallery. But in the sensory deprivation tanks / Floatation tanks.... it’s all about Theta waves, Choose double dip on the endorphins with a deep tissue massage in our urban art space.

EBX is an amazing local paper, and great supporter. We love that their elite team selected us for this honor. Here’s to floatation therapy becoming the next best local artistic chill!

Finally the 1st video in the Robots Are Art series

Artist and founder Frank Garvey of Omni Circus a Robotic cabaret in San Francisco.
Shows off Go Boy, as we set-up the ROBOTS ARE ART, show and contest last December. This has nothing to do with floatation, just art!

Seriously get that head out of your butt! Three cheers for the De-grumpy tank!

It’s funny that every once in awhile a new or semi-new floater will have some kind of life epiphany after a good floatation therapy session. It’s not unusual for someone who had been afraid of taking risks, or trying new things will exit the float tank willing to open up and make long overdue changes in their life. Or even the remarkable 1^st time floater, who is both afraid of the dark and the water, exits the tank after having a great float and overcomes their own fears.

I know rare people who, after just a single float decided to leave their longtime lucrative career and start something entirely new, focusing around quality of life rather then simply the path of the almighty dollar. Just one float!?!

Bad economy, what if, should have, could have, we all at times find a way to … for lack of a better term, get our head stuck up our butt. Simply over thinking too many options in life, or not allowing ourselves to sort things out in a rational positive manner. Stop, be grateful and enjoy what’s around us, clear your head, and follow your path. Oops, so easy to forget.

Yep the last few weeks I have needed a float to break a grumpy unsettling moment, exiting the tank really happy and with a clear head, ready to be productive.

One of my Canadian buddies is flying in tomorrow, she had been struggling about what job to take and in what country, to the level of self abuse. She even continued to over think her recent decision to stay in Canada, and the process became even more painful. So escape Vancouver where she can’t find a float tank, so why not come float in Oakland. Just get the head back on straight before starting her new position. What an excellent idea.

After 17 years of floating, it still amazes me how a simple hour of buoyant silence can reset our brain out of mega grumpiness.

Once called sensory deprivation tanks, then floatation tanks and now perhaps de-grumpy tanks, a new name for an old school solution.

A majestic presence in our floatation tanks

This morning I received a call from Liz Mamorsky, one our amazing artists and she told me that she heard Muriel Maffre from the San Francisco Ballet talking about FLOAT, Floatation Center - Art Gallery on public radio KALW 91.7 Artery arts program.

How cool is that! I knew she was a dancer when she came to float, but not really how important she was. What an honor to have her come float with us in our art space.

I love it when art and floatation collide.