[Psyche Uninterrupted] : the void of mental activity as an exploration for new audio-visual instruments

Abstract

How does an individual fuse with technological media to create an electronic music instrument? This thesis brings forward the idea of individualism, stemming from anarchic thought as a means for electronic music making. The research focuses on the hybridity of the human and non-human entities that come together in the performance of a Brain-Computer Music Interface. The technicalities of the project involve the direct translation of brainwaves into sonic properties that by means of machine components, constitute the “technological self”. The investigation is tackled from a practice-based perspective. The aesthetics and technical procedures are borrowed from electronic music making as an artistic practice. [Psyche uninterrupted] proposes analytical views on philosophy, mainly composed from Max Stirner’s (1844) “creative nothingness” as the backbone of the research. The artwork emerges as an experiential practice that blurs the boundaries between reality and imagination, acting upon hallucinating and narcotic effects. The work contributes to noise, showing that the properties of loud sounds and sensory deprivation techniques can result into altered states of consciousness. The installation allows for the individual to lose control to the machine in isolation. Using electroencephalography (EEG) technology, biofeedback sounds act intensely on the performing brain and technology joining in a sonic flux of generative, experimental music.