Multichannel Generative Video Installation + EEG
Exhibited as part of the Worlds Amongst Us group exhibition
Audain Gallery, Vancouver, BC
Exhibited as part of the Worlds Amongst Us group exhibition
Audain Gallery, Vancouver, BC
Recollection of the Disappeared is a generative multichannel video installation driven by the artist’s brainwaves during sleep. Using an EEG device, It utilizes the artist's old family videos and real-time brainwave data to explore the cognitive mechanics of dreaming while inquiring about the revival of forgotten memories. 16 VHS tapes curated into 75 separate videos of the artist's childhood were embedded into a heavily glitchy memory network. As the artist sleeps, the brainwaves are recorded and fed into the computer in real-time. Once the activity of the brainwaves indicates dreaming, the glitch dissolves and the memory blocks expand and become clear, emulating the emergence of a dream.
It is believed that forgotten memories resurface during the pre-mortem transition, and even persist after biological death, as integral components of the life review process. These insights are derived from a 2022 study demonstrating that in its final throes, the brain orchestrates a nostalgic dream sequence, reviving and consolidating past experiences. This revelation prompted contemplations on the enigmatic essence of memory itself: what compels the brain to engage with memories as its ultimate endeavor? Such reflections furthered my fascination with nostalgia, forgotten memories, and dreaming, and influenced the design direction for Recollection of the Disappeared.
It felt only fitting that the unconscious mind responsible for forgetting these memories would be the one to bring them back to life. The work was designed to induce, albeit artificially and symbolically, these memory blocks back into a “living” network unobstructed by conscious decision-making. The objective was to recycle these long-lost memories into an autobiographical artwork through human-machine collaboration. I acquired an EEG (electroencephalography) headband to record the activity of my unconscious mind during sleep. I then isolated three of the recorded brainwaves — Delta, Alpha, and Theta — to use as the driving parameters for the generative memory network.
It felt only fitting that the unconscious mind responsible for forgetting these memories would be the one to bring them back to life. The work was designed to induce, albeit artificially and symbolically, these memory blocks back into a “living” network unobstructed by conscious decision-making. The objective was to recycle these long-lost memories into an autobiographical artwork through human-machine collaboration. I acquired an EEG (electroencephalography) headband to record the activity of my unconscious mind during sleep. I then isolated three of the recorded brainwaves — Delta, Alpha, and Theta — to use as the driving parameters for the generative memory network.
The VHS tapes were recorded between 1996-2006, spanning a little over the first decade of my life. The installation is made up of three snippets gleaned from a seven-hour real-time generative visualization of my brain activity during sleep. These snippets were transformed into a composite of blazing pixels. Based on the real-time input of the EEG, the videos were called into a glitch network. The glitch network is a noise system designed to emulate the “neural noise” activity of the brain while sleeping. During sleep, particularly in the rapid eye movement (REM) stage associated with dreaming, this neural noise plays a significant role in the generation of dream content and its fragmented characteristics. The generative system in TouchDesigner was designed to detect when dreaming is taking place based on the EEG data, thereby dissolving the glitch network and allowing for the pixelated memory blocks to expand and become clearer. The generative system thus functions as a “dream spotter”.
Three channels of the video installation. From right to left: Video of the artist sleeping, real-time brainwave data, generative video (dream spotter)
On the left:
Delta (deep sleep) is peaking and Alpha becomes noticeably more volatile while dreaming (REM). These parameters change the behavior of the system, dissolving the glitch network and allowing for the emergence of the videos. Delta and Alpha control the glitch amount and the video shuffle speed respectively. This experiment was executed four times, spanning over a 5-6 hour sleep cycle. The dreaming window ranged between 13-27 minutes within the cycle.
On the right:
On the right:
The artist is falling asleep, Delta waves are considerably lower in activity while alpha rises in intensity and fluctuates spontaneously. During this time, as well as during Non-REM, the glitch network powers up, becoming more volatile and creating chaos in the videos.