The "Headbang" Project
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EEG as art
The "Headbang" Project took place in 2005, and was a collaborative piece of work between Ian and the Glasgow-based artist Victoria Skogsberg. Victoria came to take part in one of Ian's experiments, and as part of the experimental debriefing, Ian showed her the raw EEG waveforms of the activity measured from her brain. Ian mentioned in passing that he always thought that the EEG waveforms were "beautiful", and not merely a product of a sensitive measurement device. This resulted in a discussion between the two of them about integrating elements of science and art, and the "Headbang" Project was born.
The first stage of the project involved setting up to record Victoria's brain activity using the EEG. Victoria then relaxed and attempted to effectively "calm" the waveforms, before generating a large "headbang" - a violent movement of the head. The EEG is so sensitive that even blinks or small muscle movements produce huge artefacts in the waveform. A "headbang" therefore creates a tremendous amount of noise in the EEG. This entire process was filmed.
Victoria then took the waveforms and recordings of the process and created an installation art piece at the Collective Gallery in Edinburgh, funded by the Gallery and the Scottish Arts Council. Ian wrote a small article to be presented alongside the piece in order to describe and explain the technology involved in its creation.
This project is particularly interesting in the fact that movement artefacts are one of the main things that electrophysiologists strive to eliminate or avoid, whereas this project actively embraced an extreme form of this type of artefact for a very different purpose. It demonstrated one possible way in which art and science can come together from very different directions in order to produce a creative piece that neither discipline would have been inspired to produce on its own.
The "Headbang" Project took place in 2005, and was a collaborative piece of work between Ian and the Glasgow-based artist Victoria Skogsberg. Victoria came to take part in one of Ian's experiments, and as part of the experimental debriefing, Ian showed her the raw EEG waveforms of the activity measured from her brain. Ian mentioned in passing that he always thought that the EEG waveforms were "beautiful", and not merely a product of a sensitive measurement device. This resulted in a discussion between the two of them about integrating elements of science and art, and the "Headbang" Project was born.
The first stage of the project involved setting up to record Victoria's brain activity using the EEG. Victoria then relaxed and attempted to effectively "calm" the waveforms, before generating a large "headbang" - a violent movement of the head. The EEG is so sensitive that even blinks or small muscle movements produce huge artefacts in the waveform. A "headbang" therefore creates a tremendous amount of noise in the EEG. This entire process was filmed.
Victoria then took the waveforms and recordings of the process and created an installation art piece at the Collective Gallery in Edinburgh, funded by the Gallery and the Scottish Arts Council. Ian wrote a small article to be presented alongside the piece in order to describe and explain the technology involved in its creation.
This project is particularly interesting in the fact that movement artefacts are one of the main things that electrophysiologists strive to eliminate or avoid, whereas this project actively embraced an extreme form of this type of artefact for a very different purpose. It demonstrated one possible way in which art and science can come together from very different directions in order to produce a creative piece that neither discipline would have been inspired to produce on its own.
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Last modified 2005-10-06 02:40 PM
Last modified 2005-10-06 02:40 PM
