Brainloop - Janez Janša

Brainloop
www.aksioma.org/brainloop

Brainloop is an interactive performance platform that utilizes a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) system which allows a subject to operate devices merely by imagining specific motor commands. These mentally visualized commands may be seen as the rehearsal of a motor act without the overt motor output; a neural synapse occurs but the actual movement is blocked at the corticospinal level. Motor imagery such as "move left hand", "move right hand" or "move feet" become non-muscular communication and control signals that convey messages and commands to the external world.
In Brainloop the performer is able - without physically moving - to investigate urban areas and rural landscapes as he globe-trots around virtual Google Earth. Through motor imagery, he selects locations, camera angles and positions and records these image sequences in a virtual world. In the second half of the performance, he plays back the sequence and uses Brainloop to compose a custom soundtrack.

Author: Janez Janša (SLO -I)
BCI performer: Markus Rapp (A)
BCI supervisor: Reinhold Scherer (A)
Programmer: Suncica Hermansson (HR)
PD programmer: Seppo Gruendler (A)
Sound designers: Brane Zorman (SLO) and Seppo Gruendler (A)
Executive producer: Marcela Okretič (SLO -E)

Production
Aksioma - Institute for Contemporary Arts, Ljubljana (2004-06)
www.aksioma.org

Project supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Ljubljana

Co-producers
- Dept. infromationsdesign - FH Joanneum - University of Applied Sciences
- Institute for Knowledge Discovery, Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interfaces, Graz University of Technology

http://www.aksioma.org/brainloop/index.html