The human brain has long been a fascinating subject for both art and science, which is now being blended into “Brainstorms: A Great Gig in the Sky,” a new live interactive experience for Pink Floyd songs.
Interactivity is optional, but memorable. Visitors to the exhibition can choose (and pay extra) to have their brain activity recorded while listening to Pink Floyd’s classic album “The Dark Side of the Moon” – and later, it will be shown as mesmerizing clouds synchronized to the same soundtrack on an enormous scale. London Frameless immersive art gallery room.
Immersive art venues have sprung up around the world, often featuring popular painters whose work blends walls, ceilings and floors around visitors. But combining the concept with music and live elements brings “Brainstorms” closer to “ABBA Voyage,” for example.
That’s not the only thing in common: Both show they use technology as an enabler, not a focus.
This makes “Brainstorms” different from last year’s groundbreaking experiment in which neuroscientists were able to recreate Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1” using AI to decipher the brain’s electrical activity. This time, it was a spectacle.
While cutting-edge technology is involved behind the scenes, from Emotiv EEG headsets and spatial audio to surreal visualizations, the starting point of the Brainstorms project is a lot of music – more precisely, Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright.
Wright’s daughter, Gala, wanted to do something special for the 50th anniversary of the album featuring “The Great Gig in the Sky,” a beautiful song composed by her father, with an unforgettable vocal composition by Clare Torry. “So we started coming up with ideas,” composer and music technologist JJ Wiesler told TechCrunch during the premiere.
Wiesler is one of the founders of Pollen Music Group, a San Francisco-based creative outlet known for its music scores and sound design. With a music studio and lab that works with VR/XR headsets, phones, home devices and more, Pollen is no stranger to experimentation. But “it’s a bit of a change to take it into the exhibition world,” he said.
It was Gala Wright who had the idea to focus on neuroscience and study the human brain’s reaction to music. That led him and Pollen to partner with Dolby to record the brain activity of 125 volunteers listening to “The Great Gig in the Sky,” synchronized with ad hoc software, Wiesler said.
Conducted last year, the experiment became the basis of “Aurora,” a creation in which the moon illuminates the Arctic tundra, evolving into the aurora borealis.
“Aurora” takes all the largest galleries in Frameless, but there are four of them, which were not part of the original plan. With 30,000 square feet at their disposal, the Brainstorms team came up with more than filler. Keeping “big gigs in the sky” as its overarching theme, take it in your own room with “Eclipse” and enlist London-based music artist Imogen Heap for a bird-inspired room.
Clear my clouds
A musician known to be involved with technology, Heap has double Star in “Murmur,” which is set to track around him Cumulus, while two starling sheep – murmurations – represent the brain activity and the princess dancing in the sunset.
Perhaps more clearly than in other rooms, this visualization gives an idea of how the same music can affect different people. This is the science part of Brainstorms: During the visit, participants will learn that visualization represents what other people feel when they listen to Pink Floyd.
In “Aurora,” the involvement causes the red aurora color, relaxation adds “quiet blue,” and excitement revives the movement of the aurora, the exhibit panel explained. Meanwhile, in “Eclipse,” the raw electrical power of the brain fuels solar activity, driving flares and ejections, while the brain’s regional activity is spatially aligned with the sun’s surface activity.
For visitors who opt for an EEG reading, it becomes more personal: A few days after the visit, they will receive a summary of their brain activity. It comes with a science-based explanation of gamma, beta, alpha and theta brain waves and what they tell you about your thoughts, but it’s also a personal visualization that you’ll remember.
“We built a visualization engine of how clouds are formed, because Richard Wright is an amateur photographer who takes thousands of pictures of clouds,” Wiesler said. Cross that with data and neuroscience, and you get Cloud Gallery.
“Enjoy your afternoon,” said PR before I wandered into the large room to watch my brain on the screen, moments after Imogen Heap did the same. Due to the measures taken to maintain anonymity, only you know what cloud you have, but your eyes may be in the news.
From ASMR to brain-themed museum exhibits, there is a rising interest in what music does for our brains, but there is something about Pink Floyd’s music that makes it a perfect fit for such a view. “Due to popular demand,” “Brainstorms” has added a new date to its London residency, organizers say, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it eventually makes its way to other cities and exciting venues around the world.
