From November 11 to 15, 2023, Nora Gibson [student member, Concordia] was in residency at Hexagram to further her research on consciousness and being. This DEMO presents three works—Self-Tuning (2023), Allure (2023), and EEG Soundscape_2 (2023)—created during the residency, which is based on earlier work—the dream (2023)—she presented at Imprints, Hexagram’s 2023 exhibition at Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria.
As a dancer of three decades, Nora is interested in how the body is the intermediary for our conscious experiences. She situates the human body in relation to symbolic objects to investigate time, death, object irreducibility, relationality, and beauty. She works with physiological data and feedback systems, understanding that data alone is insufficient to convey conscious experiences. She is thus interested in materials that are “less than tangible,” such as data, light, sound, programming, and the interactions among beings and between beings and art objects. Inspired by the work of philosophers Timothy Morton and Graham Harman, these projects were about experiencing this relational dynamic, and likewise highlighting the aesthetic aspect of conscious experience.
The dream was the first iteration of Nora’s experiment with the redirection of research through an aesthetic object. It featured live EEG input data which animated a projected particle system and soundscape. This piece intended to create a feedback system with one’s self, and to consider the quality of that interactive experience. She was interested in theta waves and the mental states associated with a larger preponderance of waves within that frequency band (theta waves are particularly prevalent during REM dream states, but they also occur during periods of creativity). She thus used live EEG data to create an aesthetic object to express the feeling of being in a dream-like waking state. Therefore, the goal was to take information that looked like this…
…to create something conducive to an aesthetic experience. As such, Nora began to think about the interaction between the environment, the (art) object and the self as another object and considered how she responded to particular colour environments.
L: The first iteration of the dream, which had no corresponding sound. The live input of the EEG data drove the particle system depicted in the projection. R: The second iteration that was presented at Ars Electronica.
In the work’s second iteration, Nora invited members of the public to wear the EEG sensor, their brain activity thus generating the exhibit’s experience. At that point, Nora had also created an interactive sound component, so the data that was streamed in real-time from the sensor was also generating a sonic landscape emitted from a speaker placed directly in front of the participant.
Residency Process
Wanting to build upon the experience gained from the dream, and to further investigate the relationship between physiological data and aesthetic objects, and the role of physiological data as a material, Nora’s initial objectives, were:
to construct a vehicle for conscious experience through an aesthetic language;
to program a system that will work interactively with different data sets (tables of data and real-time data);
to program visual and sonic patches relevant to the project;
to allow for visualizations (or sonifications) unique to each participant;
to bring the philosophical ideas of Harman and Morton to life empirically through art;
and to arrange screens and projector placement, stereo placement, and other related aspects to the user experience.
In the Salle d’Experimentation Nora spent a lot of time arranging projectors, screens, lights, and curtains until each piece was able to develop naturally, and the overall composition of the space allowed for two distinct visual installations. Separated by curtains, the first space was used for real-time projections (Self-Tuning), while the second, projected stored data (Allure). The sound was split between speakers that were placed in each space. This spatial configuration process had a significant role in shaping the two installations, as it became clear that using data in different ways would result in different experiences. The residency became a way to develop both types of experiences.
Self-Tuning (2023) – An interactive installation for projected generative visuals, EEG sensors, and live brain waves.
Self-Tuning (“tuning” is a term used by philosopher Timothy Morton) is a vehicle for the merging of the self with the object and Other. The EEG brain waves of two participants trigger and collapse imagery in unpredictable sequences. This real-time model tunes minds via an aesthetic object.
L: EEG headsets, raw data monitor, laptop that rendered data and visuals in real time R: panoramic look of visuals across both walls
In Self-Tuning, Nora generated many different types of imagery, from geometric structures to neuronal-appearing organic shapes, to volumetric pointcloud images of her dancing. The live EEG data was connected to many parameters within each patch, and to image selection. In other words, the data controlled different characteristics of the visuals as well as the sequencing of the imagery. The visuals that she programmed were designed to evoke things on radically different scales of existence. Nora knew that the pacing of the EEG data would produce a stroboscopic effect, simultaneously representing this imagery at different scales. The different generative visuals include renderings of microscopic organic elements, neurons, imaginary meta structures, space jewels, cosmic explosions, and floating human figures. She decided to use beta waves, which are prevalent during attentional states, because the salient nature of the visuals was likely to produce interesting and dynamic patterns within this frequency band. The visuals were projected onto two walls – one for each participant. Each participant wore an EEG sensor headset, impacting both visuals separately. If the parabolic-like patterns of the participants’ brain waves were to sync-up during the experience, then the sequences would do the same, producing a panoramic effect between the imagery on both walls.
Allure (2023) – An installation for projected generative visuals, stored brain waves, and LED lights.
Allure refers to a relation between objects described by philosopher Graham Harman, where “beauty is part of a larger class of phenomena [called] “allure,” and “is the separation of an object from its qualities.” (Harman 2005). In Allure, the focus is on brain wave data as a material or object, and how its interaction with other objects, like light, colour, and form, shows a previously unknowable aspect of that data. In Allure, the data animates the patterns of the projected composition as well as the lights’ luminosity.
L&R: variations in patterns within the projected visuals, and differing degrees of intensity in the pink LED lights
For this piece, Nora used stored data from her brain activity, utilized as a loop within the patch. This data controlled a minimalist pattern of white lines that were projected onto translucent layers of fabric. The data likewise controlled the degree of luminosity of LED lights that accompanied the projection. In making this second piece, Nora was interested in comparing the interactive experience of an art object that contains physiological data (Allure), with an art object that is a live medium for that same physiological data (Self-Tuning). She was also interested in the contrast between the narrative nature of Self-Tuning, due to recognizable imagery, and the abstract nature of Allure, which used a vocabulary limited to lines and compositions.
EEG Soundscape_02 – Original electronic sound design composed with theta and beta waves
EEG Soundscapes_02 demonstrates two ideas: that consciousness is not contained within the physical body, and that free will cannot be taken for granted. In these compositions, the material of the artist’s brain is used to fill the room that extends beyond the body, and the composition is dictated entirely by the will-less stream of that physiological data.
To create this soundscape (which can be heard in the videos above), Nora used both live brain data as well as a recorded version of the sound that had been created using that data. During the post-residency presentation, she used the recorded soundscape, because a glitch caused her computer to crash repeatedly when using the live data. In theory, the real-time data that controlled Self-Tuning would have also been programmed to create the sound in real-time. The patch takes the incoming EEG data and sends it via OSC to VCV rack, which is software that virtually replicates modular synthesis. Within the software, the EEG data controlled the gates that in turn controlled the sequence of notes as well as the quality of the sounds being produced. During the presentation, however, Nora found that using the recorded version (a 13-minute loop) was effective in creating a contextual atmosphere for the entire exhibit. Nonetheless, she was aware that the data had been displaced from her body and transmitted into the air around her and everyone else. Upon reflection, she appreciated this displacement of herself, seeing why there might be symbolic reasons to use both sounds produced in real-time and sounds that have been pre-recorded with data.
What next?
The next iteration of this work will be at Nora’s MFA thesis exhibition on May 2 to 4 at Concordia University’s Black Box. As she moves forward, she is less interested in the performative aspect of interactive art, than in the shift in the hierarchy between the art object and the art subject—when the limits between the two are blurred. If the work is reliant on a feedback system between a person and their environment, then it becomes possible to ask if the “self” (the subject) is perhaps more a vantage point than an objective fact. In the next phase of this work, Nora will be focusing on spatial composition to better appreciate the interrelational nature of the experience.
Statement of Gratitude
My deepest thanks to The Hexagram Network for providing this residency opportunity, Lynn Hughes [co-investigator member, Concordia], who supervised this project, and my thesis supervisor, Eldad Tsabary, for his critical input.
All photos from Nora Gibson.
Nora Gibson began her professional dance career at 13. She attended Baltimore School for the Arts, and earned a BFA in Dance from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. Through Nora Gibson Contemporary Ballet, a 10-year project celebrating collaborations between ballet and STEM fields, her work has been commissioned by universities and developed through residencies in the US and abroad. Inspired to explore deeper questions about the body, in 2018, she began integrating technology into her work. Since then, her work was presented by the Fels Planetarium at the Franklin Institute (PHL), Vox Populi Gallery (PHL), Ars Electronica’s Online Global Gallery, Contemporary & Digital Art Fair(“CADAF”) (NYC), Lightbox (NYC), Urban Screens Production (AUS) The Hexagram Network (CA) at Ars Electronica (AUT). Through this expanded practice, Gibson facilitates research-creation around body-mind duality, selfhood, and perception. During Gibson’s internship at the Biosignal Interactive & Personhood Technologies Lab, a neuroscience research lab at McGill University, she researched physiological markers of interpersonal synchrony in relation to aesthetic experiences which has inspired physiologically interactive installation and sound pieces. She is currently pursuing her MFA, is a student member of the Hexagram Network, and has taught digital media at Concordia University in Montreal.
