Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf

Brain Sensing Music

The audiovisual performance for string bass solo, Brain Sensing Music, by Valentin Link visualizes the brain activity of the player during a freely improvised music performance. Using an EEG (electroencephalography) headband, the focal point of the musician is measured by four sensors on the forehead and ears. This influences the size and deflection of the points on a predetermined circular path.

The visual concept is based on the important hand-drawn ensō circle from Zen-Buddhism, which expresses a moment when the artist's mind is in a free state. The blinking of the performer distributes dots on the image, and the muscle traction on the jawbones generates a stroboscope effect. An individual image of the mental state during performance is thus created with each new improvisation. 

Brain Sensing Music was completed in the 2015/16 winter semester as Valentin Link's final project in the upper-level Visual Music 2 module and supervised by Prof. Dr. Heike Sperling and Andreas Kolinski.