Awhile ago, a friend said something on twitter to the effect of:

“I dreamed about making art last night, does that count?”

His question got me thinking: I thought I saw for sale a headset (called “Mindset” from a company called “Neurosky”) that claimed to read your brainwaves (alpha, beta, theta, gamma, etc) and allow you to use them to play video games.

I wonder if I can record my brainwaves to make art while I sleep with that?

A few months later, and after a lot of custom code was written,

I have the first proof of concept done that says yes, I can!

This video clip wasn’t generated while I was asleep – that will be later – but it was generated in part from my brainwaves. My mind influenced 6 sets of x,y,z coordinates, 6 sets of colors, and a few other attributes. The music playing in the background influenced line count, line length, and rotations/speed.

In some very real sense, listening to and watching the visualization as I was making then went on to influence the next few seconds of the recording by the patterns watching it generated in my brain. Remember, this is just a proof of concept/demo, but enjoy. I think it’s cool *make sure you turn your sound on too*:

Brainwave Music Visualization #1 from Jack Whitsitt on Vimeo.

Next up, for the actual “art” instead of just “proof of concept”, I’m working on being able to manipulating paintings, photos, and other images over time with brain waves. This would be the “make are while dreaming” piece.

The other project Im building simultaneously is an add-on to a paintbrush for photoshop or gimp (or some drawing program) that changes the brush properties according to your neural activity…..so if you were, say, drawing with a pen tablet, the actual output would be a cross between what you consciously intended to draw….and the influence of those brain waves.

The portrait is of Amanda Fucking Palmer (of Dresden Dolls fame) and the photo I used was one I took of her in Los Angeles at a secret show she had for 30-50 twitter followers the day before Coachella this year.  She twitters links to “art of the day”about her or the Dolls every day and I was hoping she’s tweet this one out – which she did! (stoked!).

The photo was projected on paper hanging on the wall. I used a variety of pastels, paints, markers, and some charcoal in the drawing.  I like how her hair glints from the gold metal paint, and I used some white paint to cover up more serious “oopses”.  I’m not entirely happy with it – it feels a bit forced to me – but it’s a good start. I’ll definitely be doing more.