IMA | lab No. 10

At the moment, questions of neuro-aesthetics can be heard with increasing frequency. In recent years, brain research has been intensively occupied with the resonance of art production and its reception on the development of the human brain. The media have also taken up the topic of interactions between art and neuronal processes; editorials have been full of stories and portraits, and in the science sector there has been an enormous increase in publications on the topic.

In this context, music assumes an excellent position in its role as an art form that has always spoken especially to the emotions and the "soul". Thus, it comes as no surprise that the occupation with neuronal processes has already become a certain tradition among musicians. The classic brain music piece is Alvin Lucier’s performance piece "Music For Solo Performer" (1965), in which an arsenal of instruments is controlled by the brain waves of the performer.

At the ZKM | Institute for Music and Acoustics’ IMA | lab No.10, Japanese artist Kiyoshi Furukawa presents the University of Tokyo’s latest findings and current developments in the artistic research as shown in the project "Brain Dreams Music". Furukawa and his team work on the development of instruments and software that enable real compositions to be created from music imagined in the mind of the test person.

Kiyoshi Furukawa presents his project "Brain Dreams Music" in a lecture performance at the IMA | lab No.10, with a ca. 40-minute presentation and a ca. 20-minute concert offer of "brainwave music". The piece "it's almost a song..." by Kiyoshi Furukawa will be shown, with: Takayuki Hamano (brain instrument) and Nobuaki Motohama (clarinet). In conversation with Prof. Ludger Brümmer, head of ZKM | Institute for Music and Acoustics, individual aspects of this work at the interface between brain research and composition will be sounded out.