EEG: SLEEP & DREAM
Interactive immersive tool & installation for audiovisual translation of EEG data
[Examples to be added soon…]
In collaboration with Peter Simor (Budapest Laboratory of Sleep and Cognition, Université Libre de Bruxelles)
This project investigates the audiovisual and haptic translation of EEG data as a tool for interactive exploration and neurophenomenological insight. EEG recordings spanning the full sleep cycle — including wakefulness, drowsy onset, NREM stages 1–3 (light sleep, spindles, slow-wave sleep), and REM — are streamed at original (512 Hz sampling rate) from CSV files and used to modulate individual frequencies across 20 audio channels, one for each EEG electrode. Visitors and researchers can adjust each channel’s volume, timbre, or mute state, enabling dynamic comparisons between spatial brain regions or between stages of sleep. The interface invites embodied, intuitive listening that complements and contrasts with conventional visualizations of EEG data.
The sonification strategy has evolved over the course of the project. Early mappings used downsampled data translations, which were melodic and musically coherent but scientifically limited. Later iterations introduced continuous frequency modulation — allowing each EEG signal to directly shape the pitch of its own tone in real time. This creates a richly textured, temporally precise choir of individual EEG voices in which brain rhythms and synchronizations become audibly present. The result is an immersive sonic rendering of the sleeping brain that can support interpretation and engagement.
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EEG data from two (of 20+) channels are mapped and scaled into synthesized acoustic frequencies, which drive a subwoofer whose vibrations activate dilatant (sheer-thickening non-newtonian fluid) motion, creating a visual and haptic embodiment of neural rhythms during SWS (slow wave sleep). SWS is a sleep stage during which significant ROS clearance occurs (essential for cellular repair and cancer prevention). The result is a visual haptic metaphor for the resting body as an active site of repair… [click here for more detailed info.]
The project includes interactive participatory public events (@IMéRA) exploring making and activating dilatant-covered subwoofers with audified data…
Interactive EEG sonification-cymatification-haptification…
Biofeedback EEG explorations: http://dani.oore.ca/jade/
Late nights with Peter Simor editing & sonifying EEG sleep data in my IMéRA studio…
