A short reflection of how in the last three months we have started to transcend technology, and became art.
The last two months have been busy times for the EEGsynth. I had planned this time as a bit of a break between jobs (I will start tomorrow at ICM, Pitié Salpêtrière analyzing inter-cranial recordings in the study of epilepsy). However, besides some much-needed sleeping in, and a week being struck down by the flu, it did not really feel like a break, except perhaps in a break-away-from-science way. It was actually quite remarkable, as these two months allowed some intense EEGsynth explorations and some more (personal) transformations into the realm of sound and music performances. But let’s first take a step back.
It was almost exactly half a year ago that we did our performance at Karolinska. This was the first performance where we truly used EEG, rather than muscle activity, in a performance for a large audience. Only by doing does one learn, and thanks to those early exercises were we able to understand and improve several artistic and technological aspects. Technically, we were able to improve the calibration of the EEG, so that the output of the alpha power to the synthesizers automatically remains within clear boundaries, retaining good dynamics, and freeing ourselves from those concerns so that we can fully focus on the musical expression. Where before two people were needed to operate the EEGsynth, a single person can now comfortably manage the whole loop from EEG to sound. Musically, or rather psychologically, we learned better which sounds, and especially which manipulations, allows a subject to not just recognize the connection with their EEG, but also use it to deepen their experience. It turned out that it is quite important to have the right (e.g. organic) sounds, and to manipulate them subtly. Furthermore, one needs to slowly build up the experience, from an initial ‘getting it’, to full immersion. We also improved visualization and ability to interactively select the appropriate EEG frequency bands, which are different from person to person and sometimes from time to time. Performatively, while the improved visualization helps understand the technology, we also had to confront the always present problem of audience expectations – when and to which degree do you explain the technology, and how important is this? We will get back to that later.
After Karolinska, things slowed down a bit again, also because I was getting towards the end of my contract at ENS, trying to finish my research there. However, thanks to Samon, we got the possibility to develop a public talk and performance during the Second Square fair. Samon took this opportunity to investigate the history of brainwave music by taking a closer look at its pioneers, and their contemporaries. This resulted in quite an extensive anthology of most brainwave music productions that are on record, which we will develop into a proper review at a later date. To get a taste of it, you can take a look at some amazing archival (and more recent) footage from the YouTube channel on brainwave music that Samon created. During the second day at Second Square, we created miniature personalized EEG-based concerts for participants. As I wrote earlier, this was truly touching experience. It fueled my desire to be more active as a musical performer, rather than only remaining ‘the scientist’ behind the scenes. In fact, I have become increasingly obsessed with Eurorack synthesizers, and have been spending much more time (as well as my money) on it, as well as, most importantly: listening.
I would like to paraphrase a friend by saying that ‘art happens when it ceases to be abstract’. This ability to touch people with electronically generated sounds, I mean, you can spend your life contemplating it or doing it. How wonderful! At the same time, this quote presses the point that it can’t be sound alone. These experience are one where the act of listening, performance, expectations, feelings and communication all come together. In other words, where the performer and the listener engage in an intimate relationship. Can brain-music-interface technology allow us to deepen this communication, perhaps by opening up role-reversals between the performer and ‘performee’? Is the essence of compassion not equality? More to reflect on this, for sure. In any case, here you can see how my little sound-creating setup has since exploded.
Although these heart-felt experiences were certainly a boost in confidence that a true connection could be made using our technology, and my amateur musical skills, it was still quite a step to then perform at Ecole normale supérieure on synth, together with Samon on brain, as part of the Semaine de Cerveau (week of the brain). Being on stage in front of a dark audience does not allow a two-way connection. Instead it was a dive into sound, and Samon’s brain. It was quite an experience ‘reading’ Samon’s mind, seeing when he seemed to absorb himself in the sound, evidenced by periods of large alpha activity in response to new patches, and then letting his alpha activity modulate those patches. Afterward I was especially happy about how we could contextualize the performance into the history of art and science, that things ‘clicked’ in more than an intellectual level, and how we were certainly able to give to the audience a unique and very different way of explaining neuroscience as one that they might be used to.
The EEGsynth then traveled to Rotterdam to the TecArt festival, as part of Cogito in space. I’ve talked enough about Cogito in earlier blogs, but in this context it might be good to emphasize the potential of the sonic element of the installation – the noise of the brain – especially in a performative settings. We were accompanied by Mariette of Underbelly soundartmedia, who in conversation helped me understand the enormous scope and inter-connectedness of sound art with the other arts. She also sold me Earth Sound Earth Signal by Douglas Kahn, which has now become a very important reading, helping me to understand the history of technology and art in terms of invisible (electromagnetic) signals. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It tells a great story on how Alvin Lucier and Edmond Dewar met each other, and how their art and science created the first EEG-based sound performance.
We now arrive at about three weeks ago when Daniela and I kicked-off our workshop at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts (the Academy of fine arts) in Paris. We were invited by Vincent Rioux, the head of their digital arts program, and together with friends and students set up a two-and-a-half-week installation at Folie Numerique, La Villette. The workshop developed around the theme of waves (rather obviously): from electromagnetic, radio, brain and sound waves, to waves of attendance by students and audience. In fact it is still going on, broadcast live at radiobal.fr, a portable web radio created by Vincent and his former students. The workshop so far included adaptations of Daniela’s Moonbounce during a live Skype connected with the Dwingeloo radio telescope, her Opticks, and Cogito in space. Ignacio Rebollo, my collegeau at ENS presented his latest paper on stomach-brain coupling. At other times, I installed a public EEGsynth setup, where the audience could have their EEG transformed into sound. EEG alpha activity was used to control the pitch of a MicroBrute analogue synthesizer. It wasn’t the most interesting or musical sound, but it was easy to set up and already quite an experience for the visitor. Importantly, it was a setup that could be easily explained and experimented with.
On Wednesday night we performed a synthesis between EEGsynth and Spiritual Lapdance, a performance by choreagrapher Carima Neusser and Per Huttner. You might remember Carima from the first EEGsynth performance we ever did, back in Stockholm, analysing EMG muscle activity. She was part of our early explorations, and it was great to be able to work with her again. In fact, Carima and Per just returned from their a tour in the USA and Brazil, and we were able combine their mysterious and introspective performative dance/performance with my EEG-based music. In short, one participant at a time was taken into a corner of the Folie Numerique, where they were instructed and EEG was attached. Per closed the curtain around us (the participant, Carima and me), and then introduced the concept of presence in art, instructing the audience to introspect and explore our presence behind the curtain using an eye, a physical manifestation of their ‘I’ they could hold in their hands.
I do not want to dispel all the magic which the audience and us created by explaining too much, because it truly was an beautiful and mysterious evening. If there is anything we learned from this performance, it was the importance (and the ability) of putting feeling first, and technology second. For this, the audience needs to be correctly introduced to the exploration, and the technology has to perhaps taken physically out of the picture. In the end, the better the technological interface, the more it becomes transparent and can be forgotten, until only communication remains.
Finally, we were able to experiment a bit with a MIDI-controlled piano. It was a quick setup to control it with the EEGsynth (the keyboard module), that Robert created a while ago. Perhaps more than with the MicroBrute, it created an uncanny sense of mind-control. In fact, I connected it to myself, which was, believe it or not, the first time I used my own EEG. I only took 5-10 minutes to perform my first EEG-piano piece, but it was quite an extraordinary experience to hear the connection with one’s attentional state. Look, it wasn’t there most of the time, but if the conditions are right, and everything is set up properly, and you do get the connection, yeah, then it’s pretty amazing. However, the hard part is to make it art, and to touch heart. It’s time to play.