Dynamic EEG Mapping as Artistic Experience

Abstract

Use of encephalographic (EEG) signals of brain activity to generate dynamic representations of emotion and feelings as artwork. Works were produced from emotional stimuli, reaction to existing artworks and forms (images, music, dance and tactile examination), reaction to existing EEG artworks, and recursive reaction to the dynamic representation of the artists own EEG artwork. Amplification of artistic experiences through EEG augmentation, provided a complementary visual experience in which the observers neural reactions to an artwork formed an additional component of the work. Subconscious reactions were made visual and a complex interplay of the observed artwork, reactions to that work, reactions to reactions to that work, and the visual EEG representation itself as an artwork, combined to produce a complex and nuanced artistic experience. The attitude of 68 primary preservice arts education students to arts education was surveyed pre-post using the Teaching With the Arts Survey (TWAS) instrument and compared to an 82 student control group in the same course. Improved responses to the reflective application of the arts and motivation to incorporate arts education into teaching was shown.