BIOFEEDBACK MUSIC IN SANTA MONICA
It’s been a week since the symposium, so I want to take a moment to reflect on it.
Aware of the local history, I couldn’t help but think of Barbara Brown (1921-1999), a trailblazer in biofeedback research. She worked at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Sepulveda and at UCLA, wrote well-read books for a broader audience like “New Mind, New Body" (1974), and founded the Biofeedback Research Society in 1969 right in Santa Monica. Around the same time, artists began using biofeedback in their works, and in the case of Nina Sobell and a few more artists, the influence of Dr. Brown was direct.
During the Q&A session following the performances, the name of Pauline Oliveros came up quite a bit. It makes sense since she left a mark on Alex Chechile and Barbara Nerness. Speaking of the discussion, it almost turned into a promotional moment for the Center, in the best way possible. Max and Chuck, the music software designed at CCRMA, received the highlight during the discussion, which is no wonder given that Alex and Barbara both pursued their doctoral work at Stanford.
The pieces to be performed remained largely a mystery up to a few hours before the event. Barbara kicked things off with two pieces, including a collective meditation inspired by Oliveros and another featuring custom-designed pulse sensors. Alex invited the audience to play with how sound enters their ears while he had been performing with an EEG device connected to a Buchla. Performance of Kenny Zhao, developed with Micah Huang, presented an interesting case of entrainment—Kenny’s visuals were dynamically altered by live recorded electroencephalogram of Micah.
This symposium was a first for the curator in many ways: it was the first biofeedback music presentation since 2022, the first time traveling for production, the first time not having university or college resources in place to support the performance, the first time acting as a producer with no back up. So it was quite a learning quest! The audience had many questions and people were interested in engaging with the artists and seeing the instruments, which was very rewarding to witness.
Last but not least: you might think biofeedback music is a pretty niche area, but it’s actually gaining traction. Just on March 8th, there were two additional events featuring brainwaves, heart rate, and respiration—the UK and Canada were in on it too!
So, what’s next? The next stop shall be in Santa Barbara—stay tuned for updates!
Nice. I look forward to seeing the full videos.