WIRED Staff
Culture

Slideshow: Brain Music: Not Much to Dance To

Several hundred curious -- and brave -- souls gather for a "deconcert" in which their brain waves are recorded, mixed and played back. The brain makes a variety of noises, it turns out, none of which is likely to make the pop charts. Michelle Delio reports from Toronto.
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The backbeat for the concert was provided from heart scans.

See related story: Brain Music: Not Much to Dance To

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Music in the Key of EEG

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The final cut revealed a cute little tune with all the drawbacks of digitally produced music. In other words, it's brainy, but it's got no soul.
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The concert began with a deep breathing meditation. (Evidently, the human brain makes better music when it's in a deeply relaxed alpha state.)
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Audience members were then connected to the concert system by way of electrodes clamped on each ear. Another electrode was attached to headbands and positioned over the backs of their skulls to grab signals from their occipital lobes, the part of the brain responsible for processing visual information.
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Several hundred people crowded into the small gallery space where ominous-looking hooks, cables, suction cups and clamps dangled from the glass ceilings and white walls. Knowing the machinery was going to record your brain activity certainly added an interesting twist to the gallery visit.