Last week, Chicago Symphony Orchestra cellist Katinka Kleijn premiered a one-of-a-kind piece that involved her wearing an EPOC Neuroheadset, a piece of equipment that uses 14 sensors that connect with the scalp and pick up brain waves.Last week, Chicago Symphony Orchestra cellist Katinka Kleijn premiered a one-of-a-kind piece that involved her wearing an EPOC Neuroheadset, a piece of equipment that uses 14 sensors that connect with the scalp and pick up brain waves. The piece, Intelligence in the Human-Machine, is a new duet for “cello and brain waves” composed by Daniel R. Dehaan in collaboration with Ryan Ingebritsen, commissioned by art duo Industry of the Ordinary. The headset can take processed recordings of brain waves and, through the performer’s own thoughts, can manipulate their pitch and speed.
Dehaan’s score consists of 20 musical gestures such as long tones or pizzicato movement, for example, indicated by two- or three-bar snippets of conventional notation, together along with 100 verbal suggestions to Kleijn to “find” concepts like focus or balance or life, within each gesture.
