The Traces We Leave (2019)

Eight Analogue CRT oscilloscopes, 16-channel Audio Interface, Computer running custom software.
Metal frame and wood shelves, cables.

This installation shows my EEG data, as recorded at UCL’s Institute of Neurology, using a 128-electrode EEG machine.

During the recording session I asked my assistant and Prof James Kilner to stimulate my brain in different ways. This included listening to ASMR audio tracks and music, drawing a picture, having a conversation, being asked to think about various subjects, ranging from family to maths equations, and being poked with sticks and stroked with feathers.

We made a series of recordings which were then analysed by Prof James Kilner. The recordings show brain sctivity split into 4 frequency bands, Alpha, Beta, Delta and Gamma. I created a 3d model showing where the electrodes were on my head, and then used the data to animate a series of ‘spikes’ which correspond to the voltages detected at each electrode. These 3d animations are then sent to the oscilloscopes as pairs of audio signals.

I am interested in how our personal data is collected, stored, aggregated and examined by the ‘third parties’ in our lives. 

In this project, my idea was to put my own brain data on display, data that is very intimate, but delivered in a format that can’t be read easily by a computer.

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