Hypnagogia

Hypnagogia is the liminal state between consciousness and dream, a transitional flow that occurs within the mind. And consciousness in its wholeness is a rich continuum.

This immersive installation, performance, and video piece illustrates this hypnagogic duality. Utilizing EEG brainwave sensors, I capture an objective metric of my brainwave processes and translate this data into an orchestrated light sequence; a symbol of the conscious, objective brain activity. As the installation glows, I reveal my subconscious by reading aloud my dreams. The creation is a harmonious interaction between these mindstates.

This piece was shown as solo show in conjunction with UCLA Art|Sci and at Authentication Error [Solved] 2018.

Contents

• Background

• Tech Breakdown

• Hardware Breakdown

• Show Documentation

Background

The past six years, I have written down my dreams and nightmares with best detail as possible. I believe our dreams provide insight to our mind: the thoughts and impulses that live deeply within our soul, a memory from a past life, a prophetic vision for the future, a portal to an alternative universe. From writing down these dreams, patterns and symbols emerge from genuine fears born out of trauma and true joys out of love for others that carry over even when my brain is set to rest. 

However, subconciousness is not the only facet of being. The conscious mind has affordances of its own, may it be the decisions we make against our internal nature, the questions we raise, the motives we consider, the actions we pursue, the agency we hold. Furthermore, consciousness and subconsciousness collaborate into the multitude of instances of the in between, as our thoughts cannot simply be motivated solely by one or the other.

Technology Breakdown

In short, the Muse headset takes the brainwave data > data is accessed via bluetooth and OSC Terminal > the data flows into a Processing sketch > which is linked to an Arduino via Standard Firmata. 

• EEG Sensor: Muse Headband

• Getting Muse to Processing

• Arduino Firmata

The code I used for this installation can be found here: https://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/560706

Hardware Breakdown

Preliminary plan layout for installation.

Handmade circuit board for 4x4 LED Matrix, inspired and modified by Cody Mack's 8x8 LED Matrix tutorial.

Each LED light was cut and soldered to longer stranded wires and then heat-shrinked to extend the lights from lantern to circuit board. 

Stranded wires were woven into hardware cloth and attached to a wooden frame. All hardware (cutting & building the wooden frame), circuitry (soldering and engineering) were done myself and under the mentorship of Jonathan Cecil.

Show Documentation

Authentication Error [Solved] 2018

Photo credit: Lauren Kim and Matthew Broking

Hypnagogia, Solo show at UCLA CNSI 2018

Tags:  #designresearch #installation