Alpha Lab, 2013

Combining neurofeedback training with participatory art, and electronic music, AlphaLab explores the possibilities of a unique form of electronic art, in which attention, experience and compositional form become radically entwined.

Participants experience this work whilst resting on their backs, on specially designed beds fitted with vibro-tactile sub-bass speakers that augment the biofeedback sound they hear in their headphones, with low frequency vibrations into the back of their body. Electronic soundscapes controlled by changes in Alpha  brainwave activity are  used to guide participants  to a place of intense but wakeful stillness.

Interviews and diagrams recorded with participants after their interaction document the range of experiences and reflections supported by this unusual human-computer interaction.

AlphaLab explores new connections connections between consciousness, subconsciousness, creativity and electronic art – combining experiential and interactive approaches with documentary and ethnographic aesthetics, to explore in a concrete and highly focussed way, the dynamics of consciousness itself as a material for aesthetic enquiry – in this case the open-foccused states of  attention uniquely supported by Alpha neurofeedback training.

Event Dates

June 7th–10th, 6pm – 10pm
Address: Shop 2.04, 140 George Street,
The Rocks (behind the MCA),
Circular Quay, Sydney,
New South Wales, Australia.

Credits

George Khut: Interaction Design, Installation, Sound Design, Interviews

James P. Brown: Interaction Design, Sound Design, Interviews, Photography

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Sophie Greenfeild (Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, Rocks Popup); Alinta Krauth and  Andrea Dixon (laboratory assistant facilitators); and dLux Media Arts.