Music / Feature
Fusing music and science: the brainwave audiovisual art installation created by a dBs Institute graduate
Mark Doswell goes by Ambisinister at night but is known to be the brains behind Sound Mind in the day.
After completing a BA at dBs Institute, Mark went back to complete an MA in Innovation in Sound and created a brainwave audiovisual art installation as his final project.
The installation reads a participant’s brainwaves while listening to music and renders the results onto a laser-cut ply dome with 950 LEDs embedded into the structure.
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“I guess it started with my interest in generative music,” Mark tells Bristol24/7. “First of all just creating music using bio signals and then I wondered if I could generate music using brainwaves and looked into the possibility of building a simple EEG [electroencephalography].
“I was pleasantly surprised to find a consumer grade, affordable EEG. So I first began by generating random music but then I thought it’d be cool to build a giant brain and have the brain light up course on corresponding to somebody’s brainwave activity.”
The neurofeedback installation has different sounds that invoke certain types of feelings in the user. As well as being the creative director, Mark is also the sound designer for the Sound Mind, producing the sounds that will play inside the installation.
However, Mark got some outside help when it came to building the installation; he collaborated with Jim Turner and Rory Pickering to help design and construct the dome.
“It wouldn’t have been possible without my collaborators”, Mark says.
The final project was displayed at the end of school year with people invited along to experience it. It was nerve-wracking as much as it was exciting.
“I didn’t invite many people down because I didn’t even know if it was going to work. We had tried out all the separate stages but we hadn’t tried it out altogether so it was risky,” Mark tells us. “I was also being marked on it so I had a lot of pressure that day.”
Fortunately Mark passed with a distinction for his work and has also been interviewed for the January edition of Audio Media International.
The installation has currently been detached and is in storage but Mark hopes to get it back up and has even more ideas for it.
“We’d like to apply for some funding and do a new structure and make it so it’s weatherproof!”, Mark explains.
“I originally wanted to have the installation light up according to regions of the brain. For example, a certain piece of music is processed in a certain part of your brain and then that part of the sculpture would light up so that’s something we want to do in the future.”
Main photo: Mark Dowells
Read next:
- From bleak folk bands to electronic music, Tikoda isn’t afraid to try something new
- From eight people in a living room to Westminster Abbey, Sofar Sounds is exploring new heights
- dBs Institute announces major developments to their teaching facilities
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