Posted on

DIMENSIONS [ 2015 ]

Dimensions is a brain activity sonification and visualisation system using topographic values from energy pointers. The main technique is programmed in OpenFrameworks, Supercollider and Puredata to map every electrode from an EEG headset and represent the dominant frequencies searching for possible power, phase or trigger correlations.

This system enables the user to be aware of the displacement of energies moving on the brain. One can notice correlation such as symmetry on electrodes of the same order, same frequency domains in all electrodes, or asymmetrical correlation on left and right side of the brain.

Second price at the Hack the Brain congress, WAAG SOCIETY, AMSTERDAM.

[ REPOSITORY ]

RELATED WORK:

TOPOLOGIES OF DESIRE
ENTRAINMENT
OPEN SENSORY SUBSTITUTION
ACTION POTENTIAL

Posted on

SENSORIAL SUBSTITUTION LAB


El término sustitución sensorial refiere a una técnica no invasiva introducida por el neurocientífico Paul Bach-y-Rita en los años 60’s que asiste la restauración de sentidos dañados haciendo uso de interfases híbridas cerebro-máquina para redireccionar ciertas características de una modalidad sensorial a otra y utilizar las capacidades adaptativas del cerebro para reemplazar categorías perceptivas. Sugiere que mientras el cerebro y su conexión con el medio ambiente operen adecuadamente, los sistemas sensoriales periféricos son secundarios en el ejercicio de cognición global.

¿Qué representaría esta idea en una persona sin ningún inpedimento físico? ¿Es posible la creación de categorías perceptuales inéditas o habría una sobresaturación sensorial?

El objetivo del laboratorio es realizar un prototipo de sustitución sensorial que permita al cerebro hacer un mapeo espacial a través de sensaciones sonoras y electrotáctiles. Para ello utilizaremos una cámara de Raspberry Pi + comunicando Open Computer Vision via OSC con Super Collider. Y de esta manera estudiar la posibilidad de expandir las capacidades humanas y desafiar la concepción aristotélica que postula cinco sentidos con funciones específicas nítidamente separadas entre sí.

[ REPOSITORY ]

 

Posted on

CULTIVO DE ENERGÍA LAB

Así como la electricidad es necesaria para darle vida a nuestra máquinas y aparatos existen cierto tipo de organismos biológicos que para mantener activa su maquinaria celular utilizan la energía en su forma más pura. En una reacción causada por la reducción de oxígeno, estos micro organismos reducen los metales de su entorno y crecen nano-antenas que hacen las veces de un tubo respiratorio por donde transfieren electrones.

¿Cómo podría esta energía representar una nueva gestualidad sonora basada en un lógica rítmica no humana?

El objetivo del laboratorio fue cultivar este tipo de bacteria y hacer uso de la corriente que genera para alimentar el funcionamiento de un sintetizador de sonido análogo que desarrollaremos en este mismo espacio, y de esta manera lograr una interfase de expansión sensorial que amplifica la corriente eléctrica producida por este microorganismo y sintoniza la velocidad de oscilación del sintetizador, en búsqueda de una variedad de patrones auditivos totalmente inesperada.

LABORATORIO DESARROLLADO DENTRO DE LAS ACTIVIDADES DE B10S CON EL APOYO DE FUNDACIÓN ALUMNOS47 CDMX

[ PHOTO LIBRARY ]

Posted on

OPEN SENSORY SUBSTITUTION [ 2015 ]

The term sensory substitution refers to a non-invasive technique introduced by neuroscientist Paul Bach-y-Rita in the 60’s who attends restoring senses damaged using hybrid interfaces brain-machine to redirect certain characteristics of a sensory modality to another and using the adaptive capacities of the brain to replace perceptual categories. He suggests that while the brain and its connection with the environment operate properly, peripheral sensory systems are secondary in the exercise of global cognition.

The aim of the prototype of sensory substitution is to allow the brain to create a mapping of space through sound and electrotáctiles sensations. And thus consider expanding human capabilities and challenge the Aristotelian conception that postulates five senses with specific functions clearly separated from each other.

In this project we are using OpenCV to detect blobs from a video camara attached to the Raspberry Pi, this detections is later tranform into sound using SuperCollider and SC.VO.3.1 for python and electrical impulses using GPIOS.

[ REPOSITORY ]  [ PHOTO LIBRARY ] [ LABORATORY ]

RELATED WORK:

TOPOLOGIES OF DESIRE
ENTRAINMENT
DIMENSIONS
ACTION POTENTIAL

Posted on

BIOSENSORS LAB

El taller trata de generar un acercamiento a la técnica del biofeedback la cual se enfoca en obtener datos sobre diversas funciones fisiológicas de las plantas. Utilizando instrumentos que permiten visualizar información sobre el funcionamiento y ciclos de estos sistemas vivos.

Los participantes podrán observar los procesos de distintas plantas, desarrollando sensores de bajo costo para monitorear cambios galvánicos, electromagnéticos de humedad y temperatura entre otros. Estos procesos son después transformados en señales OSC para ser transmitidas a distitos programas como processing y Puredata.

El taller se presenta como una técnica para generar aproximaciones gestuales y artísticas apoyándose en la sensibilidad de las plantas como un medio de comunicación no tangible.

EL TALLER DE BIOSENSORES HA SIDO PRESENTADO EN EL FABLAB DE CHILE, MUSEO TAMAYO, FONOTECA NACIONAL Y CENTRO DE CULTURA DIGIGITAL EN MEXICO.

[ PHOTO LIBRARY]

Posted on

CITYLISTENERS [ 2014 ]

Interpolate as a resource to approach the plasticity of electricity, at least from one of its physical representations, such as sound. CityListeners is a device designed to navigate the city in search of sources of electromagnetic interference. The circuit is designed to transduce these signals to sound, with the help of an electromagnetic pickup and an audio amplifier.

These interferences are presented as part of an intangible sound landscape due to the speed and number of sources that exceed our current capacity to perceive them. The device is first a tool for drift, inside a space saturated with information and signals. Understood within the context of the “live act” it is an observation tool for directed listening.

 

 

RELATED WORK:

SINTONIA DEL RIO
AIRE CDMX
MAREAS CHILE
SPACE DATA AND NOISE
VOLCANIC MEMORY

Posted on

ACTION POTENTIAL [ 2014 ]

Action potential is a research project on Neuroesthetics, a recent subdiscipline of empirical aesthetics, that studies the possible relationships existing between art perception and the bioelectric signals produced in the brain in terms of active listening and observation.

The first experiments took place during the commemorative exhibition of poet and art critic Octavio Paz at Palacio de Bellas Artes in México. The experiment consisted in recording the bioelectrical activity of 20 volunteers of different ages and backgrounds under active observation of one of the art pieces, active listening of a text by Octavio Paz concerning the piece of art and the two stimuli simultaneously, using a wireless brain-computer interface. Once the sampling was completed we converted the signals in to sound using the OSC protocol in Pure Data, and in to computer graphics through Processing with the de- sign of an algorithm for data interpretation.

Action potential is a multidisciplinary approach intended to assist the exploration of patterns during the data analysis under the aesthetic experience. In collaboration with Erick Fernando Gonzaález Castañeda and Alejandro Antonio Torres García directed by Luis Villaseñor Pineda Ph.D and Carlos Reyes García Ph.D of the National Institute of Astrophysics, optics and electronics (INAOE) for interpretive advice and spectral analysis of the recorded samplings.

[ PROJECT SITE ]  [ REPOSITORY ]

RELATED WORK:

TOPOLOGIES OF DESIRE
ENTRAINMENT
OPEN SENSORY SUBSTITUTION
DIMENSIONS

Posted on

ENERGY BENDING LAB [2014]

The Energy Bending Lab is an instrument comprised of a set of custom-built modular synthesizers and transduction tools that creates a real-time sonification from the electric properties found in some bacteria. And through the use of cymatics—visible frequency vibrations—it is later converted into a visual pattern generator. Conceptualized as a DIY interspecies system, the interface amplifies the microvoltage produced by these microorganisms transducing their oscillatory features into raw electronic signals tuning the internal clock of the whole system and producing an unexpected array of sound patterns. The object explores the relationship between waveforms, matter, and the physical form of frequencies, seeking a pattern-based understanding of our context to illustrate the underlying order within the universe and human consciousness that appears to be intimately related to vibration.

The EBL was conceived during the course of a 2 month residency program granted by ECAS and hosted by festivals Cimatics in Brussells, Todays Art in The Hague and Insomnia in Tromsø; AND build at bauhaus university as part of a research residency.

 

[ VISIT THE PROJECT SITE ] [ REPOSITORY ] [ PHOTO LIBRARY ]

 

RELATED WORK:

SPECULATIVE COMMUNICATIONS
MICRO-RHYTHMS
PHYCHIP
NON-HUMAN RHYTHMS
GFP SCREEN
GEOBACTER MICROPULSE

Posted on

BIO-BOX [2013]

The bio-box is a musical interface to create live acts using the readings of the activity of different plants as analog data to control audio generators in real time. Bio-Box establishes audio communications between different living systems (mosses and algae) that generate micro-voltage as a gestural response to physical stimuli such as light, vibration or touch. By making these audible electrical responses, the interface gives us access to the complex sensory systems of different plants. The project has been presented in different fetias.

[ REPOSITORY ] [PHOTO LIBRARY]

 

RELATED WORK:

PULSU(M) PLANTAE

Posted on

PULSU(M) PLANTAE [2012]

Pulsu(m) Plantae empirically analyses the mechanisms plants use to communicate and how their own biologi- cal processes are a manifestation of communication see mingly intangible to our senses. The project proposes the design of a sound prosthesis based on the principle of biofeedback -a technique focused on gaining awareness of an organic body physiological functions- using instru- ments to gather information about the operation and cy- cles of these living systems. The prosthesis transduce the readings obtained in to a sound synthesis process conferring an abstract voice to plants. Patterns obtained from the study in different specimens of plants would be a basis for a future design of a coded communication sound system.

The aesthetic conception of Pulsu(m) Plantae is based on the idea of chaosmosis, coined by Italian philosopher Félix Guattari, who proposes aesthetic subjectivity as a method for generating referential links. Pulsu(m) Plan- tae provides a series of interactive experiences where the technological application gives the subjects a tool to increase its capacity of perception. The project seeks to analyze the non-tangible processes of communication in networks composed of biotic elements, amplifying electrical signals that serve as channels of transmission be- tween the different types of specimens that conforms the plantae kingdom.

In collaboration with Juan Carlos Gonzalez biologist specialized in botanics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Project funded by: FONCA (National Fund for Culture and the Arts)

[ VISIT THE PROJECT SITE ]  [ REPOSITORY ] [PHOTO LIBRARY]

RELATED WORK:

BIO-BOX