ICAT Playdate: Investigating human-electronic musical interactions through neural and musical analysis

Term: Fall 2026

Date: October 30th, 2026

Time: 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.

Location: Community Assembly in the Creativity + Innovation District Living-Learning Community 

Instructors: Phyllis Newbill & Jennifer Lancaster,

Presented By: Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT)

Description:

This year-long, IRB approved ICAT SEAD funded project investigated whether two musicians performing together, one on saxophone and one on voice/electronics, develop measurable brain synchrony during hybrid acoustic electronic performance, and whether that neural coupling persists after the electronic scaffolding is removed. The team combined EEG hyperscanning, custom motion sensor instruments, and live performance to study the connection between musical and neural synchrony. The project is also part of Susie Green's iPhD dissertation research on multimodal understanding of synchrony in technologically mediated music. Along the way the project produced AUGI, an open-source gestural/tactile controller for acoustic wind and brass instruments, and staged public performances in Miami for a Miami Music Week Afterparty Festival and Blacksburg for VTDIC Beat Battle and Production workshop event. The team will present AUGI at the 28th ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction in early October, and will also present "Embodied Synchrony in Hybrid Performance: A Performer-Researcher Perspective" at the College Music Society's International Conference in Iceland in summer 2027. This pecha kucha will share what the group found and built over the course of the grant year.

 

Speakers:

Julia Basso, Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise
Kyle Hutchins, College of Architecture, Arts, and Design; School of Performing Arts
Susie Green (Susan E. Green-Mateu), Individualized Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program