brain station

source: zero1biennialorg

MeatMedia
live and work in Hangzhou, China

MeatMedia is a media art organization, initiated by Wu Juehui and Shao Ding. In recent years, they have been operating within the potential interfaces between art and science, body and media, in collaboration with laboratories or institutes such as TASML (Tsinghua University Art & Science Media Lab), Institute of Neural Engineering (Tsinghua University), Media x Design Lab (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology | EPFL), Institute of Graphics and Image (Hangzhou Dianzi University). MeatMedia focuses on the “Emotional Interface” by setting open game regulations, in attempt to find a balance between the“Dry”and the“Wet”. The members of MeatMedia participated in several national and international media art exhibitions and festivals, such as “Translife – International Triennial of New Media Art”, “SHIFT Festival 2011”,“Synthetic Times – Media Art China 2008″, “New Directions from China”, “Shanghai eARTS”, and several public media projects, such as “Expo 2010 Shanghai China”. Since 2008, MeatMedia has started a project based on the brain-computer interface in collaboration with the Institute of Neural Engineering of Tsinghua University.

The Brain Station series by MeatMedia creates an interface to enlighten the invisible data of our body. In the first Brain Station, the artists applied cutting-edge BCI (brain computer interface) technology to a wearable light bulb helmet that grew brighter and dimmer according to the participant’s emotion-related brainwaves. The technology amplified the brainwaves and translated them into visible light by transforming biological energy into photovoltaic energy. Simultaneously, the participant responded to the mood of the light. There was an endless feedback of the emotion between human and the machine and between organism and non-organism.

Brain Station 2 (2012) also allows participants to wear another BCI on their head, but this time with a light bulb hanging in front of their eyes. The brainwaves from the visual cortex, captured by the BCI, power the light. When one’s eyes are closed, the light turns on. When eyes open, the light turns off. Even with closed eyes, one can still see the light and sense the surroundings more vividly. Therefore, Brain Station is an artistic representation of the energy flow between human perception and the rest of the world.