ICAT Playdate: Epiphany Machine: Real-time EEG Brain Scanning for Live Performance

Term: Fall 2024

Date: November 8th, 2024

Time: 8:30am - 9:30am

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

Instructor: Phyllis Newbill

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

Description:

Epiphany Machine (2024) is a neuroballet for two subjects using live electroencephalography (EEG) to visualize the brain activity of dancers in a variety of performance states. Traditionally, the brain has been studied in stillness, but recent advances in Mobile Brain Body Imaging (MoBI) have enhanced our ability to study the moving brain of not only one but two or more individuals during interactive experiences. The resulting piece is a hybrid performance event, existing as both a concert work of dance and as a scientific study into the effects of dance on brain activity. It is an interdisciplinary, collaborative investigation into livestreaming. It visualizes the brain activity of dancers in a variety of choreographic tasks including meditative states with the eyes closed (affecting alpha oscillations), repetitive choreographic states (affecting beta oscillations), and spatial improvisations (affecting theta oscillations).

Speakers:

Drs. Julia Basso (Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise Science) & Daniel English (School of Neuroscience) Profs. Scotty Hardwig (School of Performing Arts) and Zach Duer (School of Visual Arts) Noor Tasnim (Graduate Program in Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health)