EEG Improvised Group Performance

This performance project follows in the tradition of Alvin Lucier's 1965 EEG performance enabled *Music For Solo Performer* . However this piece is specifically designed for group performance and relies upon current hardware and software.

These performances rely on streaming live EEG data of the participants as they interact with objects and each other, looking for patterns among the noise. The data is sonified live via OSC messages in Pure Data (Pd). Sonification of individual and group brainwaves enables the audience and “performers” to notice and respond to the live brainwave data in a conscious way, we can then begin to assess corollaries between self/other/audience/ response/ feedback, etc. The intention of the project is to involve a range of different participants and to gauge their experiences as well as those of audiences.

The thesis underlying the piece is to investigate subtitles of interaction, specifically creative interactions. All the data that we visibly and invisibly produce as we constantly interact with the world: How much of this data is crucial? How much is junk? How can we tell which is which? How does it differ among small groups? Can we accurately measure these parameters? Can we hear them? Can we interpret the signals produced by our brains? Can we make meaning out of them for ourselves? For each other?