On June 22-23rd, Interactive Media Arts Low Res ‘23 alum and Collaborative Arts Instructor Jason Snell led a series of 25 workshops with attendees at Sound Scene, an annual Audio Arts Festival that takes places at the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC. His project sonically explores normally invisible processes of consciousness and synchrony.
Six participants at a time sat with EEG headsets which detected their brainwaves. When a person was able to relax or meditate, notes were inserted into a real-time group composition. Each attendeee had their own octave of notes so they could get biofeedback on whether they were falling into synchrony with the group. Also the groups heard their collective heartbeat through a sub woofer placed in front of them.
The concept was originally developed with a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts and the Iowa Arts Council and performed in May at PS1 in Iowa City Iowa (blue photo).
![Jason Snell giving a presentation](/content/dam/tisch/itp/NewsEvents/2024-2025/brainwave_symphony_1.jpeg)
![Jason Snell giving a presentation](/content/dam/tisch/itp/NewsEvents/2024-2025/brainwave_symphony_2.jpeg)
![Jason Snell givng a presentation](/content/dam/tisch/itp/NewsEvents/2024-2025/brainwave_symphony_3.jpeg)
![People playing with biofeedback music.](/content/dam/tisch/itp/NewsEvents/2024-2025/brainwave_symphony_4.jpeg)
![Flier for Pulses show](/content/dam/tisch/itp/NewsEvents/2024-2025/brainwave_symphony_5.jpeg)