I found this video over at Everyday LIstening:

Staalhemel (steel sky) is an interactive installation created by Christoph de Boeck. Using a wireless device for capturing brain waves, the participants’ brain activity influences the activity of the installation.

The installation is quite aesthetically pleasing, although I’m curious about the practicalities: only one person at a time? does a line form for people waiting to get their brainwave hats? what happens if multiple people walk around? could you have two classes of people—one with the hats and “control” over the sound and one without? and so on.

It reminds me of Alvin Lucier’s “Music for Solo Performer” (embedded in this old post on brains), which produced a similarly cacophonous percussion from brain waves. I’m not sure, but I imagine it’s actually the exact same principle at work here. The man in the video says the new helmet has “8 channels of brain waves,” whatever that means, so perhaps things have gotten a little higher resolution, but it’s still interesting that people make live brainwave analysis into clatter.

Staalhemel seems to be an installation-ized version of what, for Lucier, was a meditation (literally! hurr) on performance. Interesting stuff.

You might also want to check out my “brains” tag for some old posts about brain music.

(via Everyday Listening)