Hemispheres was commissioned by the 9e2 Festival in Seattle, a celebration of the 50 years of "9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering”. The piece uses a dome of speakers which creates an immersive hemisphere of sound, which serves as a mapping surface for live EEG data coming from the brain of the performer. The hemispherical distribution of the speakers mirrors the one of the EEG electrodes placed over the performer’s head and the live EEG data is used to generate sound projected from different areas of the space. Immersed in this system, the audience experiences the modulation of the acoustics of the site through the brain of the performer, whose auditory system is stimulated with sounds coming from the site itself, creating a sensory feedback loop.
The premiered of Hemispheres was performed by Chun Shao, a second version of the piece was presented at the 2017 DXARTS Spring Concert at Meany Hall UW performed by Stuart Dempster.
Credits:
Hemispheres was done in collaboration with neuroscientists Eberhard Fetz and Thomas Deuel. Research for this project was conducted at DXARTS Art + Brain Lab.