Electroencephalography (EEG) is a hardware technique long-used to diagnose and study epilepsy, sleep disorders, and brain death. Only recently has it expanded into the prosumer realm; Pushed beyond the medical world, this rise in these brain-wave-data measuring devices coincides perfectly with the wearable revolution, and for artists, EEG technology has grown a new medium of art; a tool for realizing near-perfect translations of creative ideas, and to recognize creativity in action, straight off the dome.
Before it becomes a realized idea or product, creativity itself moves through several different modes. Most simply explained, it begins with a thought — what some might call a “spark” of insight — that gets translated onto a fixed medium which comes to occupy its final form. With EEG, however, the brain’s electrical activity is measured through electrodes placed on the scalp, creators can now bypass a critical step in the creative process: all you have to do is “think” an idea into being, and even before a string is plucked or a stroke is painted, your creativity can be measured and observed.
Music has provided the most perfect experimenting ground for EEG artists. Yearning to get even closer to the genesis of their ideas, their internal, biological sources of inspiration, especially when people keep their mind in meditation, which can bring a stable brain wave data. Artists and musicians have yearned for this technology for years; one needs only to watch and listen to the improvisational performance of jazz musicians to understand on-the-spot melodic inventions as, perhaps, the best example of what boundless, pure creativity looks and sounds like. With EEG technology anyone can get even closer to witnessing the creative process, to envisioning churning artistic impulses without the use of hands, mouths — one needs only the active brain.
Below I found some references that might have some inspiration for the project.
1.MoBen’s The Brain Factory
“Brain Factory” using EEG-BCI let public can control matters with their brain, they can create a shape to Human Abstractions, and converted into objects through 3D printing. The project explains the relationship between thought and matter, concept and object, humans, and machine.
2. Lisa Park’s Eunoia
Eunoia is an interactive performance and installation that attempts to display invisible human emotion and physiological changes into auditory representations. She wearing a NeuroSky EEG headset, she sat encircled by dishes of water, each independently representing a different emotion. Her position in the center of it all, was thus place where she attempted to symbolize infinite unity, and to reach an enlightened stage during her meditative performance. Her brainwaves were translated into sound and visuals through the vibrating water on the dishes.
3.solaris
“Solaris” uses a brainwave-reading headpiece called the Emotive Epoc to control a pool of green slime with thought.
This interactive installation demonstrates the field influence of the permanent magnet on the magnetic and spirit (fluorescent) liquids. Two liquids constitute the diphasic system. Due to liquids' movements and their surfaces’ modifications we visualize the unique processes of the human brain. The spectator wears on neuro interface Emotive Epoc, the device computes a brain activity and sends information to the installation machinery.
Reference:
MOBEN | Brain Cloud (by Brain Factory) [WWW Document], n.d. URL https://benayoun.com/moben/2018/01/12/brain-cloud-by-brain-factory/ (accessed 9.26.20).
Brain Factory Prototype 2, 2016. . MOBEN. URL https://benayoun.com/moben/2016/12/26/brain-factory-prototype-2/ (accessed 9.26.20).
Eunoia — Lisa Park [WWW Document], n.d. URL https://www.thelisapark.com/work/eunoia (accessed 9.26.20).
solaris — ::vtol:: [WWW Document], n.d. URL https://vtol.cc/filter/works/solaris (accessed 9.26.20).
