How would an installation look like that is not meant for humans but for their brains? Trespassing landscapes of activation and deceleration – an experience that is barely, if at all, interpretable. Undulating between reception, perception, and interpretation, this mediatic installation investigates neuro-physiological impacts of audio-visual stimuli.

With the neuroscientists at Fraunhofer IAO, ATELIER-E defined a toolset of immersive audio-visual stimuli for the human brain, currently on display at ZKM Karlsruhe. An ongoing research endeavour on the use of colour, shapes, and sound and their influence on the viewers’ brain activity and performance on a conscious and subconscious level. Current neuroscientific findings suggest a multitude of approaches in stimulating brain activity or evoking a focused state of mind. Data gathered in laboratories display increased attention related to hearing binaural beats within a frequency range from 10hz to 40hz, evoking greater interhemispheric connectivity.

The artistic research project AUTOPOIESIS is realized in collaboration with Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, IAT of the University of Stuttgart and the media artists of ATELIER-E. Produced in cooperation with the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.

epileptic trigger warning: flickering imagery

High frequency visuals created in TouchDesigner projected via a 120Hz projector. Sample exact synchronised with Max for Live and Ableton produced binaural audio.

Each eeg-measurement-electrode represents a data point in a multi-dimensional space. They are the perfect entry point for machine-learning-based pattern-recognition systems. The exploration of the data in a VR headset allows visitors to discover our analysis derived from recorded eeg-data of participants during their stimulation test.