Brain on Dance

Location: University of Houston | Quintero Theatre | Blaffer Innovation Series

Year: 2015

Photography: Lynn Lane

Brain on Dance is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the University of Houston College of Architecture and Design, the School of Theatre and Dance, and the Laboratory for Noninvasive Brain-Machine Interface Systems led by Dr. Jose Contreras-Vidal. The dancer, Prof. Becky Valls, performs a piece entitled “Red Square” while connected to a 64 electrode EEG (electroencephalograph) skullcap that collects and transmits her brainwaves to a computer located in the theatre. The researchers have developed a series of algorithms that translate this information into commands that control the hue and saturation of the stage lighting providing a real-time interactive environment based on the dancer’s emotive and physical states. Real-time brain activity is also parsed and projected to the backdrop to give the audience a glimpse of what is occurring in the dancer’s brain in real-time. The software developed for this research forms a closed –loop system that allows the audience, performer, and environment to all become participants in this collaboration. Through this collaboration the audience can understand these forces – architecture, technology, and science - not as separate elements but rather as a layered system of complex interrelations. This event was part of the Blaffer Art Museum's Innovation Series, an ambitious slate of lectures, gallery talks and panel discussions, enhancing the exhibition's role as a catalyst for cross-disciplinary learning.