Caption: Iron Skulls Co dancers Adrian Vega (left) and Diego Garrido performed the dance duet Un último recuerdo for the spectators participating in the study. Photo Credit: Juanmi Ponce
An October 2, 2024 University of Helsinki press release (also on EurekAlert but published October 15, 2024) describes research exploring the differences in brain activity between audience members with extensive dance or music experience and audiences with little of experience of either,
University of Helsinki researchers measured the brain activity of people watching a live dance performance in a real-world setting. They invited spectators with extensive experience of either dance or music as well as novices with no particular background in either of these areas.
The spectators’ brain activity was measured using EEG while they watched the live dance duet Un último recuerdo, a piece created by the Spanish Iron Skulls Co that combines contemporary dance and breakdance.
Experienced dancers respond more strongly than novices
The results showed that dance experience is detectable in spectators’ brain activity during a dance performance. The experienced dancers watching the performance displayed stronger synchronisation than the novices at the low theta frequency.
Experience of dance affects brain functions associated with the visualisation of movement in the mind, the simultaneous integration of several sensory stimuli (listening to music and watching dance) and social interaction.
When musicians watched the live dance performance, they had stronger synchrony in the delta band, which is even lower than theta. This may be associated with the musicians’ trained ability to observe rhythmic bodily movements.
Watching dance in a real-world environment is unique for our brain
The effect of watching a dance performance on brain activity has previously been studied by having subjects watch a video recording on their own in a brain research laboratory.
The present study was conducted in a real-world performance environment and shows that watching a live dance performance in a full venue activates the brain more extensively than the above setting.
“As our interaction increasingly moves to online platforms and the virtual world, it’s important to know that real-world interaction is unique – for our body and brain,” says Hanna Poikonen, the lead author of the study.
The results also emphasise the effect of a background in creative movement on the spectator experience.
“If we have practised our bodily skills, we may better understand the body language of others, which makes social interaction smoother,” Poikonen notes.
Way back in time (see my March 6, 2012 posting), I featured some research into how experienced ballet watchers (not dancers or musicians) experienced a ballet performance.
Both of these bits have a music focus but they represent two entirely different science-based approaches to that form of art and one is solely about the music and the other is included as one of the art-making processes being investigated..
Large Interactive Virtual Environment Laboratory (LIVELab) at McMaster University
Laurel Trainor and Dan J. Bosnyak both of McMaster University (Ontario, Canada) have written an October 27, 2019 essay about the LiveLab and their work for The Conversation website (Note: Links have been removed),
The Large Interactive Virtual Environment Laboratory (LIVELab) at McMaster University is a research concert hall. It functions as both a high-tech laboratory and theatre, opening up tremendous opportunities for research and investigation.
As the only facility of its kind in the world, the LIVELab is a 106-seat concert hall equipped with dozens of microphones, speakers and sensors to measure brain responses, physiological responses such as heart rate, breathing rates, perspiration and movements in multiple musicians and audience members at the same time.
Engineers, psychologists and clinician-researchers from many disciplines work alongside musicians, media artists and industry to study performance, perception, neural processing and human interaction.
In the LIVELab, acoustics are digitally controlled so the experience can change instantly from extremely silent with almost no reverberation to a noisy restaurant to a subway platform or to the acoustics of Carnegie Hall.
…
Real-time physiological data such as heart rate can be synchronized with data from other systems such as motion capture, and monitored and recorded from both performers and audience members. The result is that the reams of data that can now be collected in a few hours in the LIVELab used to take weeks or months to collect in a traditional lab. And having measurements of multiple people simultaneously is pushing forward our understanding of real-time human interactions.
Consider the implications of how music might help people with Parkinson’s disease to walk more smoothly or children with dyslexia to read better.
…
[…] area of ongoing research is the effectiveness of hearing aids. By the age of 60, nearly 49 per cent of people will suffer from some hearing loss. People who wear hearing aids are often frustrated when listening to music because the hearing aids distort the sound and cannot deal with the dynamic range of the music.
The LIVELab is working with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra to solve this problem. During a recent concert, researchers evaluated new ways of delivering sound directly to participants’ hearing aids to enhance sounds.
Researchers hope new technologies can not only increase live musical enjoyment but alleviate the social isolation caused by hearing loss.
Imagine the possibilities for understanding music and sound: How it might help to improve cognitive decline, manage social performance anxiety, help children with developmental disorders, aid in treatment of depression or keep the mind focused. Every time we conceive and design a study, we think of new possibilities.
The essay also includes an embedded 12 min. video about LIVELab and details about studies conducted on musicians and live audiences. Apparently, audiences experience live performance differently than recorded performances and musicians use body sway to create cohesive performances. You can find the McMaster Institute for Music & the Mind here and McMaster’s LIVELab here.
Capturing the motions of a string quartet performance. Laurel Trainor, Author provided [McMaster University]
Metacreation Lab at Simon Fraser University (SFU)
I just recently discovered that there’s a Metacreation Lab at Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, Canada), which on its homepage has this ” Metacreation is the idea of endowing machines with creative behavior.” Here’s more from the homepage,
As the contemporary approach to generative art, Metacreation involves using tools and techniques from artificial intelligence, artificial life, and machine learning to develop software that partially or completely automates creative tasks. Through the collaboration between scientists, experts in artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences, designers and artists, the Metacreation Lab for Creative AI is at the forefront of the development of generative systems, be they embedded in interactive experiences or integrated into current creative software. Scientific research in the Metacreation Lab explores how various creative tasks can be automated and enriched. These tasks include music composition [emphasis mine], sound design, video editing, audio/visual effect generation, 3D animation, choreography, and video game design.
Besides scientific research, the team designs interactive and generative artworks that build upon the algorithms and research developed in the Lab. This work often challenges the social and cultural discourse on AI.
Much to my surprise I received the Metacreation Lab’s inaugural email newsletter (received via email on Friday, November 15, 2019),
Greetings,
We decided to start a mailing list for disseminating news, updates, and announcements regarding generative art, creative AI and New Media. In this newsletter:
ISEA 2020: The International Symposium on Electronic Art. ISEA return to Montreal, check the CFP bellow and contribute!
ISEA
2015: A transcription of Sara Diamond’s keynote address “Action Agenda:
Vancouver’s Prescient Media Arts” is now available for download.
Brain
Art, the book: we are happy to announce the release of the first
comprehensive volume on Brain Art. Edited by Anton Nijholt, and
published by Springer.
Here are more details from the newsletter,
ISEA2020 – 26th International Symposium on Electronic Arts
Montreal, September 24, 2019 Montreal Digital Spring (Printemps numérique) is launching a call for participation as part of ISEA2020 / MTL connect to be held from May 19 to 24, 2020 in Montreal, Canada. Founded in 1990, ISEA is one of the world’s most prominent international arts and technology events, bringing together scholarly, artistic, and scientific domains in an interdisciplinary discussion and showcase of creative productions applying new technologies in art, interactivity, and electronic and digital media. For 2020, ISEA Montreal turns towards the theme of sentience.
ISEA2020 will be fully dedicated to examining the resurgence of sentience—feeling-sensing-making sense—in recent art and design, media studies, science and technology studies, philosophy, anthropology, history of science and the natural scientific realm—notably biology, neuroscience and computing. We ask: why sentience? Why and how does sentience matter? Why have artists and scholars become interested in sensing and feeling beyond, with and around our strictly human bodies and selves? Why has this notion been brought to the fore in an array of disciplines in the 21st century?
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: WHY SENTIENCE? ISEA2020 invites artists, designers, scholars, researchers, innovators and creators to participate in the various activities deployed from May 19 to 24, 2020. To complete an application, please fill in the forms and follow the instructions.
You can apply for several categories. All profiles are welcome. Notifications of acceptance will be sent around January 13, 2020.
Important: please note that the Call for participation for MTL connect is not yet launched, but you can also apply to participate in the programming of the other Pavilions (4 other themes) when registrations are open (coming soon): mtlconnecte.ca/enTICKETS
Registration is now available to assist to ISEA2020 / MTL connect, from May 19 to 24, 2020. Book today your Full Pass and get the early-bird rate!
The first book that surveys how brain activity can be monitored and manipulated for artistic purposes, with contributions by interactive media artists, brain-computer interface researchers, and neuroscientists. View the Book Here
As per the Leonardo review from Cristina Albu:
“Another seminal contribution of the volume is the presentation of multiple taxonomies of “brain art,” which can help art critics develop better criteria for assessing this genre. Mirjana Prpa and Philippe Pasquier’s meticulous classification shows how diverse such works have become as artists consider a whole range of variables of neurofeedback.”Read the Review
Should this kind of information excite and motivate you do start metacreating, you can get in touch with the lab,
Our mailing address is: Metacreation Lab for Creative AI School of Interactive Arts & Technology Simon Fraser University 250-13450 102 Ave. Surrey, BC V3T 0A3 Web: http://metacreation.net/ Email: metacreation_admin (at) sfu (dot) ca
