For a long time, the human brain has been a subject of fascination for both art and science, now brought together in “Brainstorms: A Great Gig in the Sky,” a new live interactive experience accompanied by the music of Pink Floyd.
Interaction is optional but unforgettable. Visitors can choose (at an additional cost) to have their brain activity recorded while listening to Pink Floyd’s classic album “The Dark Side of the Moon” and later see it visualized as a cloud synchronized with the soundtrack in the spacious immersive art gallery Frameless in London.
Immersive art spaces have emerged worldwide, usually featuring works by popular artists that surround visitors with projections on walls, ceilings, and floors. However, combining this concept with music and a live component brings “Brainstorms” closer to shows like “ABBA Voyage.”
Both events use technology similarly: as an enabler, not the focus.
This sets “Brainstorms” apart from last year’s innovative experiment where neuroscientists recreated Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1” using AI to interpret brain activity. This time, it’s a live show.
Although the Brainstorms project features advanced technology behind the scenes, including Emotiv EEG headsets, spatial audio, and Unreal-driven visualizations, the starting point was music, specifically that of the late Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright.
Richard Wright’s daughter, Gala, wanted to do something special to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the album with “The Great Gig in the Sky,” the iconic melody composed by her father and the unforgettable vocals of Clare Torry. “So we started gathering ideas,” said composer and music technologist JJ Wiesler to TechCrunch during the premiere.
Wiesler, co-founder of Pollen Music Group, a San Francisco-based creative media known for its musical scores and sound design, worked on this project. With a music studio and a lab experimenting with VR/XR headsets, mobile devices, and home devices, Pollen is familiar with innovation. But “bringing it to the world of exhibitions was a small shift,” he said.
Gala Wright had the idea to focus on neuroscience and study the human brain’s reaction to music. This led her and Pollen to collaborate with Dolby to record the brain activity of 125 volunteers listening to “The Great Gig in the Sky,” synchronized with custom software, Wiesler explained.
The experiment, conducted last year, forms the basis of “Aurora,” a creation where the moon illuminates the Arctic tundra, transforming into an aurora borealis.
“Aurora” occupies the largest gallery in Frameless, but there are four in total, something not initially planned. With 30,000 square feet available, the Brainstorms team developed more than mere fillers. Keeping “great gigs in the sky” as the overall theme, they dedicated one room to “Eclipse” and enlisted London-based musical artist Imogen Heap for a bird-inspired room.
Get Off My Cloud
Heap, a musician known for interacting with technology, appears twice in “Murmur,” set to her ambient track Cumulus, while two flocks of starlings (murmurations) represent her brain activity and that of her daughter dancing at sunset.
Perhaps more clearly than in other rooms, this visualization shows how the same music can affect different people. This is the scientific part of Brainstorms: during the visit, participants will learn that the visualizations reflect what others felt while listening to Pink Floyd.
In “Aurora,” interaction triggers red tones in the aurora, relaxation adds “a calming blue,” and excitement animates the aurora’s movement, explain the exhibition panels. Meanwhile, in “Eclipse,” the raw electrical energy of the brain powers solar activity, causing flares and ejections, while regional brain activity aligns with the sun’s surface.
For visitors who opt for the EEG readings, the experience is more personal: a few days after their visit, they will receive a summary of their brain activity. It includes scientific explanations about gamma, beta, alpha, and theta brainwaves and what they reveal about the mental state, although the personalized visualization will likely be what they remember most.
“We created a visualization engine about cloud formation because Richard Wright was an amateur photographer who took thousands of cloud photos,” Wiesler explained. Combining this with data and neuroscience results in the Cloud Gallery.
“Enjoy your cloud,” the PR person told me before entering the expansive room to see my brain on the screen, moments after Imogen Heap did the same. Due to measures taken to preserve anonymity, only you will know which cloud is yours, although the look in your eyes might give it away.
From ASMR to brain-themed museum exhibits, there is a growing interest in how music affects our brains. But there’s something about Pink Floyd’s music that makes it perfect for such an exhibit. “Due to popular demand,” the organizers of “Brainstorms” have added new dates to their London residency, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it eventually reaches other cities and immersive spaces around the world.
Nestor Castillo, ForAllTechNews Director