Interactive Sensor-Based Art Installations

As rapidly advancing technologies become more widely available, having access to tools that collect biometric data and in particular BCI technology, is providing artists with new ways of exploring our biological selves as well as creating new modes of audience interaction. Brainlight is a large illuminated interactive sculpture that integrates biology, lighting design and BCI technology to explore the hidden aspects of our minds. The installation is controlled with a wireless EMOTIV EPOC+ EEG headset that detects live neural activity which is translated into a light display within the brain sculpture. In real time it visualises the brain frequencies of Theta (3.5-7.5 Hz) as green light, Alpha (7.5-13 Hz) as blue light, and Beta (16-32 Hz) as red light. Previously, in more traditional art, when an audience views an artwork their own psychological process would be a passive, hidden, private experience. The aim of Brainlight is to harness the brain as the creator of an interactive art experience where no physical interplay is required except for the electrical activity of the mind. The project exposes some key developments in the use of BCI technology for artistic purposes, such as how to accurately collect and process EEG data aesthetically, and what license the artist can take with this data in order to facilitate meaning or allow space for the audience to bring their own meaning to the work. This chapter will explore these developments and outline the collaborative process behind the research and development of the work and the contexts in which it has subsequently been exhibited and used by the public. Keywords Electroencephalography (EEG) · Brain-computer interface (BCI) · Brain data visualisation · Neurofeedback · Interaction design · Mind-controlled art · Illuminated brain sculpture · Interactive art · Biofeedback art · Art-science · Audience L. Jade (B) · S. Gentle

Virtual and augmented reality have been used in the performing arts with two main purposes in mind: the design of artificial sceneries and the augmentation of the actor's performance. We are mostly interested in the second application that offers new perspectives for the interaction between actors and digital media. This article describes the design of a new interface for the definition and control of multi-layer interactive 2½D scenes by performers. The resulting virtual and animated environment is a stack of semi-transparent layers associated with physical models. Because of their intuitive physical behaviour and their capacity to be adapted to various geometries, these virtual props are well suited for the stage and their manipulation by performers. The interface used to design and control these objects extends the classical layer/mask paradigm to interactive spatialised scenes made of surfaces controlled by physical models such as mass-spring systems. This work is the result of a collaboration between a laboratory in human computer communication and a theater company. It has been successfully implemented in a single-actor theater play, leading to augmented and embodied expressiveness.

Inversus is a digital interactive installation that explores the relationship between user actions with common objects: lamps, speakers and fans. It is an interactive machine that shifts the conceptual understanding a user traditionally has about a specific object, making people wonder: why should a lamp be used only to illuminate? In fact, lamps, speakers or fans are commonly used as output interfaces, imagine now, what would happen if we turn the output into an input interface? This machine explores an inversion on this relationship by using lamps as light sensors, speakers as pressure sensors and fans as blowing sensors.

As rapidly advancing technologies become more widely available, having access to tools that collect biometric data and in particular BCI technology, is providing artists with new ways of exploring our biological selves as well as creating new modes of audience interaction. Brainlight is a large illuminated interactive sculpture that integrates biology, lighting design and BCI technology to explore the hidden aspects of our minds. The installation is controlled with a wireless EMOTIV EPOC+ EEG headset that detects live neural activity which is translated into a light display within the brain sculpture. In real time it visualises the brain frequencies of Theta (3.5–7.5 Hz) as green light, Alpha (7.5–13 Hz) as blue light, and Beta (16–32 Hz) as red light. Previously, in more traditional art, when an audience views an artwork their own psychological process would be a passive, hidden, private experience. The aim of Brainlight is to harness the brain as the creator of an interactive art ...

"https://vimeo.com/fluxations/psfirstsoloside  FluxNOISations solo from an improvised duet performed with FluxNoisations and circuit-bent radio  (for front on view of the complete performance visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eBra9gd5QQ )  In this solo, Joshua B. Mailman: FluxNoisations (sounds of wood, metal, water, sandpaper, sticks, etc. and live computer graphics controlled through infrared camera motion-capture and sensor gloves)  All sounds and graphics are generated in the moment of performance.  The event includes improvised live computer graphics, a colorful spectacle projected on a large screen, controlled by spontaneous body- and hand-movements of Mailman, through his FluxNoisations interactive-dance system. Through this system, Mailman simultaneously generates and steers a stream of percussive-noise sound."