LONDONFIELDWORKS

Image: London Fieldworks 2005

The Thought Pavilion is a proposal resulting from a commission by The London Science Museum Art Projects 5 (SMAP5) Big Ideas, and is inspired by developments in brain-machine interfaces and the burgeoning role of databases across many sectors of society. The project links the psychophysics of the visual neuroscientist and experimental psychologist, Bela Julesz, with industrial manufacturing technology. Through the use of a relational database, the project proposes a model of production for plastic arts. The project has developed a system to automatically translate real-time brainwave signals (EEG) into objects. The project links a brainwave interface and a relational database of donated brainwaves from members of the public with manufacturing technology to produce sculptural forms as architectural building blocks. These building blocks will be cumulatively assembled into an architectural installation: The Thought Pavilion.

"The more we rely upon digitization, building on new possibilities for inputting, analysing, interpreting and outputting data, the easier it is to mistake, in the rigid order of computational representation, an aura of authority that it may not necessarily have."

Hannah Redler, curator Science Museum Art Programme.

 

The development of this proposal has been supported by an AHRC Creative and Performing Arts Award 2002-2005.