Closing performance by Cephalopedia for The Art of the Mimeograph conference, University of Westminster, London, Friday 8 February 2019
This performance sets out to recreate a ‘kitchin publishing’ process, with words and images contributed by the audience and put together in a small duplicated book, to the accompaniment of the sounds of the production process itself – chopping vegetables, typing, Gestetner duplicating, handprinting, collating – as well as music from double bass and the sonification of brain waves and the vegetables themselves.
Digital Empathy at Com.moon.a festival, Alytus city theatre, 2018
Using Muse (eeg) and Myo (hand gesture) technology we generated sounds with our bio data. The performance was very playful and involved the maximum usage of the space. Together with the audience we filled the walls and of the theatre’s basement with the soundscape of out brains and arm muscles.
Digital Empathy at St Margaret’s House, London, 20th August 2018
Digital Empathy is a 30-minute event in which a sonic landscape is created directly from the interaction between the audience and performers. Selected audience members are be invited to act as our choir: wearing a MUSE version of the innovative ‘experience helmet’ designed by Aiste Noreikaite, their brainwaves will create part of the soundscape. As the performers – Aiste Noreikaite and Zoë Dowlen – explore various physical states also interfaced to produce sounds, what emerges is the result of our communal experience as we explore the interior spaces of the chapel and of our selves.
Cephalopedia meets Siphonophore at Guest Projects, London, 17th August 2018
Our evening is in two (or possibly three) parts:
1.The helmet jazz band performs background music for double bass and two brains, using MUSE versions of Aiste Noreikaite’s ‘experience helmet’, an innovative device which transforms electrical brainwaves into music (aka sonification).
2. Conversation – What are you saying, what are you thinking? In this installation, ‘performance’ will be debated from the differing perspectives of art and science, using a Fluxus and cut-up inspired game of ping-pong chess, with serious dialectical exchange punctuated by the random firing of electrogenerated verbal interjects.
3. The Siphonophore is a sea creature that although it may appear to be a single organism is in fact a colonial organism composed of small individual animals called zooids that have their own special function for survival.
Inspired by the communal nature of this creature, but perhaps lacking its majestic presence and years of evolution the “siphonophore” is an experimental experiential social sculpture designed as an invitation to play. By creating a giant piece of clothing for a many armed and legged being the question is being asked about how we work together in teams and how we organise. A reference is also being made to a social dy that is composed of individuals as in Hobb’s Leviathan.
The Cauldron of Sound, Sonic Herts Festival, University of Hertfordshire, 30 April 2018
About the performance:
Movement I
Changing perception through resonant space – gongs and the brain (Suzanne Davies and Alex Gardner, with selected audience participation)
How immersion in the ancient sounds of the gong affects our brains.
Movement II
Bodies moving objects – creativity and its commentaries (Zoë Dowlen and Aiste Noreikaite, with ‘scientist’ David Mayor, ‘art critic’ Inês Amado and audience participation)
Nonverbal communication through movement and EEG sonification,* with deconstruction and audience input.
Movement III
Cadenza (Olly Dowlen) Improvisation for fretless bass, with sonified EEG.*
Future Meditation, Amsterdam, Boekie Woekie, 13 November 2017
Future Meditation is a performance piece created and performed by Aiste Noreikaite. During the usual quiet time in meditation the brain doesn’t sleep: it produces wonderful brainwaves that constitute different states of mind. Beta (15-40Hz) is connected with high mental activity and focus, alpha (8-12Hz) with relaxation, theta (4-8Hz) with daydreaming, sleep and creativity, delta (0-4Hz) – sleep, whole body recovery. In this performance you canhear Aiste’s brainwaves while she is meditating on stage. In fact, she performed using excerpts of Toru Takemitsu ‘Rain Tree’ in the first part of the event and Francis Poulenc ‘Litanies à la Vierge noire’ in the second. That is possible only through the Experience Helmet that the author has created herself. Although the physical appearance of the helmet has changed, the concept remains the same. The audience might be asked to answer some questions before and after the performance as a part of a research study that she is carrying out together with David Mayor.
Constructive Interference, Cité International des Arts, Paris, 9 November 2017
A day of interventions including a butoh-inspired performance to the sound of Aiste’s brain.
A day of divination, dancing, music and soup. Soup was served and Tulip read tarot and numerology, there were musical interludes from Teacake on guitar and special guest performances from Martha Hellion and David Mayor.
Aiste Noreikaite, Zoë Darling and Marivi Haro Matas made a short 20 min performance in which Zoë and Marivi danced to the sound of Aiste’s brainwaves wearing costumes designed by Thibaut Cora.
The Sound of the Mind at Brainstorm, Cambridge, 10 June 2017
( image from the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit made by Duncan Banks)
Have you ever thought how the mind would sound, if you could turn all that activity into music? Have you ever wondered whether, when people are ‘in tune’, their minds can dance together, their electrical rhythms changing in parallel with how they feel? Would you like to listen to the sound of another’s mind, and experience for yourself how being with others in an audience affects your brain’s electrical activity (EEG)?
EEG Hyperscanning
As part of this performance we have conducted an EEG Hyperscanning study, in which it was planned to record the EEG from 10 people while they listen to the show. We used the Muse EEG Headset which uses ‘Dry Electrodes’ to record 4 channels of brain waves. Two on the forehead and two behind ears.
A New Pair of Shoes, Beau Geste Press Study Day, CAPC Bordeaux, 29 March 2017
A fluxus performance and homage to the legacy of the Beau Geste Press
As part of the Beau Geste Press study day at the CAPC, Bordeaux Zoë and Aiste performed Fluxus scores whilst wearing the experience helmets, The audience were asked to draw during the performance and the resulting images were made into a loose leaf publication and sent by post to those attending the study day and many others.
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