VART3491 - Advanced Studio Technologies :: NeuralOSC

NeuralOSC is prototype interface for the sonification of live brainwave data that uses Neural Feedback to entrain both focus and relaxation in a gestural musical environment. The user is coaxed to engage with musical stimuli generated from their own neural oscillations in real time from a single dry electrode interface that communicates wirelessly via bluetooth into MaxMSP. The user's focus is entrained through the articulation of filter movements, pitch and timbral modulations, while a state of relaxation is used to lower the amplitude and tonal quality of other elements. NeuralOSC is an immediate and engaging way to explore neurofeedback and an interesting environment to play music!

VART3510 - AkE Internship :: Final Report Responding to Host Feedback

My internship experience gave me insight into the research application process and the speed at which the process to undertake academic research occurs. Darrin provided guidance in shaping the research and vital assistance with networking within the University and the protocols involved with preparing a research proposal. The process felt fluid and I was given freedom to set my own research goals which we developed in tandem. I was given the opportunity to work toward a postgraduate level of academic inquiry and developed some of the knowledge and skills required to undertake further research. Having had no prior experience with academic research projects I feel this is excellent preparation for the future, especially with the scope that this initial study may lead to further research.

Darrin and I have similar interests artistically so thankfully at all times I felt we were approaching the same goal in terms of field of inquiry - I think we are both genuinely excited to pursue this research topic. Darrin's own experience and knowledge generated from his postgraduate studies has been very beneficial. Along with my own literature research, his recommendations of texts have given me an ideal knowledge base to become familiar with when looking at the area where music, sound and neuroscience intersect.

The research project is scheduled to occur next semester where I will continue to gain experience in undertaking the research with participants off campus at Monash and learn the process of publishing the findings of which my name will be attached.

It is my intention to apply for the honours program and eventually move to PhD. This has been a great experience in moving toward this direction for the future.

HOST ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

Criteria

Ranking: circle (1 - not evident, 10 – high)

A) Tasks and Presentation: 8

B) Reliance and Independence: 8

C) Skills and Application: 8

D) Communication and collaboration with other staff: 8

Comments from Supervisor:

Jay’s original research project was to explore how binaural beats entrain particular brain states, with a view to collecting EEG data to control motion simulation systems on which the audience member would be seated. Through preliminary discussions it was decided to separate the research elements from the artistic outcomes – as the latter had the potential to confound the data through both their experiential complexity and the inherent recursion of the system.

In preparation for a lit review, and in the process of discussions with other departments, the existing data was surveyed and it was decided that such a seam of pure research stood to be too dry to explore within a fine art context. In order to find a meaningful relationship between sonic practice and psychophysiological exploration a new topic was considered – whether brain patterns would be substantially different for sound art versus traditional musics. The question at its core was whether genres such as noise and electroacoustic composition might be processed more as an environment, and not engage the language centres in the brain which have been linked to tonal music grammar.

Jay’s internship was designed to give him exposure to academic research practices and procedures. The key outcomes have been

• Research into generating technical access for more professional equipment
• Exploration of different departments at uni
• Preparation for lit review
• Exploration of ethics procedures
• Experiment design
• Survey design
• Technical research (EEG)

The tests he will be undertaking have been designed, and an ethics application is in process with CHEAN. Work with the experiment will continue beyond the internship.

VART3459 - Production Strategies :: Final Essay

I have predominantly spent undergrad exploring procedural driven technical projects, developing project specific design objectives and undertaking them systematically. I have really enjoyed the departure from working purely intuitively and developing a clear line between concept development stages and the execution stages of a project. The process of reflection in each task has helped me realise this and build upon it.

My coursework has acted as focal points to teach myself electronic engineering, computer programming and develop music theory skills. Rather than take the corresponding electives I developed all of these skills within arts based practise. It is only now that I find I have to account for this. Unless I have an artistic objective to employ a technology I do not find the process of learning that technology to be engaging in the slightest. Objective oriented learning in conjunction with concept development has proven to be an effective strategy.

In terms of expression, I have found arts based practise to allow more breadth in scope for following conceptual threads in the articulation of sonic design opportunities. Not being tethered to a summed stereo file is liberating to say the least. Of course the scope of stereo sound is vast, and the merits of being able to translate ideas working to a reductive format are numerous - but stepping outside of those constraints in an artistic context has been akin to adding a third axis in cartesian space.

At this junction I'm forced to consider why I am drawn to an installation arts practise and assess how divergent it is from my musical practise. Over the course of my degree I've neglected music almost entirely, I'm not convinced this is accidental. I'm compelled by the research driven component of installation design and the ability to articulate ideas spatially. The spatiality of stereo sound compositions is almost entirely psychoacoustic, I have a need to investigate tactility and materiality in a sonic context. I feel that one practise informs the other. The perspective from experimenting in an installation context has deepened my understanding of sound outside of a musical framework.

This course in particular has required me to reassess and clarify design objectives within my music. Early on I created a laundry list of design elements I am still yet to fully investigate. Elements of my early music were driven by the exploration of chaos and order, steganography, esotericism and temporality. Later I allowed myself to be indoctrinated by conventional compositional expression and standardised production techniques leaving most of this behind. I became tired of music. Installation work allowed an avenue to continue exploring these concepts from a new perspective.

This is perhaps why I selected a project for this course that is musical in nature, but expressed in an installation context. One element I identified early in the course that I wanted to explore and had yet to in academia was algorithmic composition. My motivations behind this are not technical. Chaos and order remain the primary elements that fascinate me in music. Being able to construct and permutate complex rhythms is integral to reconstructing the moments in music I find the most satisfying. To clarify, I have no interest in creating musical algorithms in the sense that renders the only performative gesture as a single catalytic keystroke. To me that is as fascinating as a screensaver. Or a pre-rendered composition. The actuation of process is identical.

To me, the performative possibilities of algorithmic composition are exciting. There is a gestural limit that greatly reduces the improvisational potential of live electronic music. This chasm is primarily what removes electronic music performance from the immediacy and excitement of live instrumental music, what is lost in sonic potential is gained in the immediacy of performance and the range of improvisational possibilities. I guess I like to consider rhythm as a sound object in the way a drone musician considers tone. The ability to manipulate temporal sensation through dynamics and density. My feeling is that drone and noise remain the dominant modes of improvisational electronic music performance purely because of the immediacy of the interfaces used and the speed with which humans can interact with them. I would like to see the microtonal complexity these performances be seen in an improvisational, gestural rhythmic context.

So why not a folio of music compositions? I don't find it to be a suitable way to conclude my degree. I came here to find and explore new modes of expression for sonic concepts. I intend to graduate having created a central installation work that may lead me to residency opportunities and post graduate studies. I am very interested in pursuing deeper academic enquiry into sound based research. Despite having to sacrifice the performative nature I outlined above, I wanted to find a way to incorporate algorithmic composition into an installation piece.

My proposed piece "Elements" explores the nature of matter and meter. 8 metal bowls of ice are arranged in a 1 metre radius each suspended above glass jars. Actuators are attached both the bowls and the jars as euclidean divisions of tempo are dispersed polymetrically around the circle. As the ice melts to water the glasses fill, gradually altering the resonance of each strike.

The title of the piece references Euclid's Elements, the famous thirteen book treatise by the Greek mathematician which contains his life's work.

Articulating this work electro-acoustically allows me to explore elements of materiality and visual aesthetics, elements that are not primary considerations when working digitally. The removal of almost limitless freedom to sculpt sound in the digital domain has forced me to consider sound much more maturely. I am enjoying this. To be restricted to minimalist sound palette with no post processing forces me to consider how sound will react within the space. There is something liberating about this. Being able to step back and just let sound exist. Just using a small set of acoustic parameters to alter the sonic characteristics - that on a nano-level are somewhat aleatoric.

VART3459 - Production Strategies Journal 10

Spatialised Euclidean rhythmic divisions prototyping:

Electro acoustic instead of synthesis/speakers??

Solenoids & Relay via Arduino over serial

Example (video not mine):

16 channel relay! 16 solenoids..

RELAY + ARDUINO LINKS:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Home-Automation-How-to-Add-Relays-to-Arduino/?ALLSTEPS

http://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/ArduinoPower

http://www.thebox.myzen.co.uk/Tutorial/Power_Supplies.html

http://www.instructables.com/answers/How-do-you-use-this-relay-module/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR3xmof8rZY

Inspiration links from Phil:

http://westspace.org.au/event/listening-to-the-reflection-of-points/

Listening to the Reflection of Points

Toshiya Tsunoda

In order for a sound wave to be heard as sound, various physical and qualitative attributes must interpose.

Using the reception of footsteps as metaphor, Tsunoda’s installation features a table with small speakers and corresponding numbers of everyday objects. A sound wave moves through the speakers at fixed intervals, exploring the changes a sound wave makes to a fixed space when it progresses towards objects, collides with them and is reflected. As such it becomes an index for the fixed space, and generates changes as it moves. These changes are perceived by the observer and appear as occurences. Reception of these occurrences means that the state of the space has been grasped, thereby completing the change generated.

Toshiya Tsunoda’s work is internationally recognized for its unique and conceptually rigorous take on sound installation and field recording. Born in Kanagawa, Japan in 1964, Tsunoda received his MFA from Tokyo National University of Fine Art and Music.

Floating Glass

Ros Bandt

http://ateliernord.no/en/alvin-lucier-empty-vessels/

Empty Vessels

ALVIN LUCIER

Empty Vessels (1997) belongs to a series of works in which Alvin Lucier studies the resonance characteristics of the smallest interior spaces. He has placed eight glass water containers and vases on pedestals along the space’s south wall. Microphones are placed in the openings of the empty vessels, and each is rooted through limiters to speakers. The eight loudspeakers are positioned exactly opposite, along the space’s north wall. The amplifier in each microphone-loudspeaker system is selected in such a way that each strand of feedback is marked by the resonant characteristics of the respective vessel. This creates a controlled feedback field of resonant tones and their interferences in the ANX gallery space. When entering the field, the visitor disrupts the delicate balance of the system, creating new feedbacks with unexpected frequencies. Even a small head movement is enough to hear a multifaceted, fluctuating spectrum of pitches. Realization: Nicolas Collins and curator: Carsten Seiffarth. Read more about Alvin Lucier and his program in Oslo during the Ultima Festival.

ARCH1372 - Development Notes

TILTING:

• AS SUB PITCH RAISES AMPLITUDE SHOULD LOWER NOT RAISE [SLIGHTLY] - WEIGHT IS IN THE OTHER QUADRANTS ON A TILTED PLANE - PITCH RAISE REINFORCED BY SHEPARDS TONE?

• PITCH REINFORCED BY HYDRAULIC NOISES?

• GRANULAR PITCH CLOUDS / TONES

• EXPONENTIAL CURVES

• TRITONE PARADOX FOR OPPOSING QUADRANTS (ONE PITCH RAISES THE OTHERS APPEAR TO FALL)

• ^ STEPPED TONES [HALF OCTAVE APART] TIMBRE: LIKE "CREAKING PLATFORM" CROSS MAP RAISED PITCH WITH FALLING PITCH ACROSS OPPOSING QUADRANTS

• ** USE REAPER TO FINESSE ARTICULATION **

• MAX TO PROTOTYPE 

AUTOMATE CIRCULAR/SPIRAL MOVEMENT IN NODE? - <ARCHEMEDIAN PATCH>

VART3459 - Production Strategies Journal 9

Arduino circuit with waterproof temp sensor, photoresistor and audio output

arduino + temp & light sensors in situ with piezo contact mic triggering generative tones and modulating live audio feed in maxMSP

Reflection: Best I could do given the circumstances. Notes for the future, generative site responsive works should feel more emergent of the space. We also should have directed people to enter one at a time. With a longer installation the body heat of the people would have altered the tone more. I felt the sounds generated were a decent approximation of the space. It felt more like a score than a sound design piece, but I think ultimately that was the intention. It was performed, but by a computer and electronic sensors.

VART3510 - AkE Internship Journal Week 7

With the research now being projected to occur after my Internship at AkE has concluded I've been looking at some of the other objectives I wanted to complete during the semester at AkE. Though the LIEF grant equipment we've requested access to at Monash is far superior to the NeuroSky hardware I modified, I've spent this session at AkE continuing to develop the software I started in week 1.

     The patch receives 10 values from TGAM1 board via bluetooth:

• "/eegdelta" : 1-3Hz
• "/eegtheta" : 4-7Hz
• "/eeglowalpha" : 8-9Hz
• "/eeghighalpha" : 10-12Hz
• "/eeglowbeta" : 13-17Hz
• "/eeghighbeta" : 18-30Hz
• "/eeglowgamma" : 31-40Hz
• "/eeghighgamma" : 41-50Hz
• "/attention" 0-100
• "/meditation" 0-100
• "/signal" 0-200
• "/raw" -2048. - 2048.

VART3459 - Production Strategies Journal 8

Group task preparation

Group is having difficulty selecting a space. Oli found a space in Trades hall.

We all seem to want to use a confined space. Oli suggested using arduino.

Ash wants to make it comedic/performative. I'm not sure I can contribute to that.


Backup space is the ladder area near the toilets in building 14, can we access it?






use arduino sensors to approximate/express a space we can't access musically?
-temp
-light
-contact mic?

VART3510 - AkE Internship Journal Week 6 :: Further refinement & CHEAN

Darrin has advised me of the College Human Ethics Advisory Network [CHEAN] and the process required to authorise research involving participants. He has advised me to outline any potential risk factors of the test design.

I've made note of the following considerations for our application to CHEAN:

*Volume - Decibel level /SPL using Earbuds 

We can control for this using a suitable volume

*Dry electrode sensor considerations 

Participants need to informed that they can not have any cuts or abrasions in sensor area, jewellery, metal plates in skull, electrical oversensitivity, pacemakers.

*Psychological issues 

Controllable, we will require that participants cannot undertake the research if psychological issues are present

Also, after filling out the CHEAN application form: Ethics Checklist for Negligible Risk Projects - questions 1, 2 and 8 required to be answered YES, requiring the Ethics Checklist for Low Risk Projects to be filled.

In the Ethics Checklist for Low Risk Projects I only identified one question that may prevent us from applying under the Low Risk category. Under administration of other substances or devices I ticked YES on the basis that we will be using the EEG device on our participants. Darrin is going to contact CHEAN to ascertain whether this does disqualify us from the low risk category.

We also decided to restrict the audio stimuli to two sources. We are both fans of the contemporary electronic noise musician Merzbow, we opted to compare and contrast the neural oscillatory response from a single piece by Merzbow and a single piece by Mozart. Simplifying the list of auditory stimuli to be played to the participants allows us to avoid having to tightly control the timbral, historical, dynamic elements and energy levels of the compositional stimuli. This allows for a piece by a contemporary electronic noise musician to be incorporated into the research.

This is also under the suggestion from Darrin that the most opportune pathway with research is to begin with broad strokes and follow up with detail in subsequent research - which feels much more suitable.



Refined research proposal:

Observation and recording of comparative brainwave activity changes in response to musical and noise based sonic compositions in order to examine whether a conventional musical framework is a significant component in the neural response to composed sonic stimuli. 

Participants will be played a single piece Mozart followed by a single piece by Merzbow. Responses to the stimuli will be measured via EEG over the duration of the composition after a baseline response has been recorded. Respondents will also be surveyed via questionnaire following the experience.

I have modelled our Participant Survey after a previous study that Darrin had undertaken.

VART3459 - Production Strategies Journal 7 [Post 2nd review]

Further development of Euclidean Rhythmic Distribution using Bjorklund algorithm in Max MSP

3 Polyrhythmic pattern generators triggering sample playback.

Midi export as a compositional tool:

Further implementation:

Polymetric timing

spatial presentation of rhythm [multichan] ?

kill sample perc / use synthesised perc
automate permutations
shape dynamics
create/modulate space through rhythmic density
vol ramps/velocity for temporal flux

controlled relational timbral changes

begin dualistic relationships [freq/pitch] move to triadic relationships

swing?
flam?

dan graham > surveillance installations

VART3510 - AkE Internship Journal Week 5

Working with the current research proposal below, I've been looking at developing the test design.

Observation and recording of brainwave activity changes in response to a range of musical and soundscape compositions in order to examine whether a conventional musical framework is a significant component in the neural response to composed sonic stimuli. Participants will be played pieces of atonal music, noise music, soundscape & stochastic music in contrast to more conventional musical compositions such as pop, rock, jazz & classical. Responses to the stimuli will be measured via EEG.

Test design:

• Participants are seated and given in ear monitors that will not obstruct the electrodes of the EEG device.

• A 30 second baseline EEG response is taken in between audio stimuli.

• EEG response is observed and recorded while participant is played audio stimuli.

• Participant is given a survey at the conclusion of the test where experiential biases and qualitative emotional responses are recorded.

Musical choice considerations:

With such a broad range of stylistic material the challenge has been to make the stimuli feel related in order to control the response.

Temporal, Timbral and Spectral content are real considerations. The "energy" and tempo of the music should be as similar as possible in order to control for brainwave response.

I've outlined some potential candidates for music selection to fulfil the criteria outlined in the research proposal:

Classical: Mozart - Symphony No. 9 in C Major

Energetic and Dynamic.

Atonal: Dane Rudhyar - Granites (1929)

Energetic and unusually dynamic for an atonal piece. Similar length.

           Jazz: Duke Ellington - The Clothed Woman (1947)
Actually considered an atonal piece, this piece could control for the energy level of the previous piece.
Dynamic, movement resembles the classic piece. Moments of energy.

       

          Noise music: Edgard Varese - Ionisation (1929 - 1931)

Composition modelled on noise, closer to timbral quality of previous pieces

 

Stochastic Music: Xenakis - Pithoprakta (1955/1956)

 Matches similar timbre and dynamics of previous pieces. Similar length.

          Musique Concrete: Bernard Parmegiani - Violostries (1969)

          Hard to find a musique concrete piece that matches the timbre and energy -
but this Parmegiani piece feels musical and dynamic.

          Rock: Amon Düül II - Between The Eyes (1972)

Very difficult to select a "rock" track that is within the timbral, spectral and dynamic energetic levels of the rest of the selected pieces,
but I think this piece by Amon Düül II best fits the criteria.

       

          Pop: Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)

Very difficult to control for bias, tone, length and energy levels. Pop is a very broad and culture bound genre.
Selected this based on its changing dynamics, timbral qualities and similar time period to the rest of the material.

VART3510 - AkE Internship Journal Week 4

I've taken the time to look into some of the other literature in AkE lab that Darrin suggested:

Daniel Levitin - This Is Your Brain On Music

David Huron - Sweet Anticipation (Music and the Psychology of Expectation)

Lerdahl, Jackendoff - Generative Theory of Tonal Music

The content explored in these books is brilliant! Many topics I wanted to explore in the coursework of my program are contained within these books. Many of the theories explored in the discourse will be very beneficial when we eventually get to undertake the research. There is a wealth of information on the neuroscience of processing music, but far less on the topic of "sound art" - understanding the current literature that explores the neuroscience of music is vital when juxtaposing this with sound art in a research context.

I've ordered my own copies of these books, I've borrowed the Levitin title from the library to try and get through it while we're working on this.

I've also listed the primary research questions we're looking to pursue:

Research Questions:

1: Is there a remarkable difference in the neural oscillatory response to contemporary sonic compositional works when compared to traditional musically structured composition?

2:Does the brain interpret these stimuli independently?

3:Does experiential bias affect these measurable responses? If so, how?

4:Does the neural oscillatory (and psychophysical) response to non musical sonic compositional works match the pattern of the neural oscillatory response to environmental audio stimuli?

VART3459 - Production Strategies Journal 6

Binary Euclidean sequencer idea/sketches:

VART3510 - AkE Internship Journal Week 3 :: New Research Proposal

Great meeting with Dr Eva Cheng last week. She is quite helpful and keen to assist us with our research. We discussed the scope of the research falling within the scope of a LIEF grant and have avenues to pursue the research in house with Antonio Paolini (Prof. Psych at Bundoora campus) or with Adrian Dyer.

Further correspondence between Eva and Darrin suggest that Eva is interested in incorporating the research into her 'Quality of Mulitmedia Experience' branch of research work which is exciting!

By suggestion from Darrin I read the following paper to explore the artistic scope of our research as we are approaching this from the School of Art.


Reedijk, S., Bolders, A. & and Hommel, B. (2013) The impact of binaural beats on creativity, Frontiers in Neuroscience




During the week Darrin and I decided to abandon Binaural beat brainwave entrainment as the basis of our research for the reason that due to the current literature there is a very small scope to explore the artistic/creative relevance of brainwave activity. By abandoning this we open ourselves up to the exploration of brainwave activity without consideration to the confounding literature exploring the legitimacy of the causal relationship between auditory cues and FFR EEG response.

We both agreed that an artistic foundation to the research would be most appropriate, with sound art as basis for investigation in a psychological context feeling the best way forward.

I altered our research proposal to accommodate a goal that explores whether musical compositional formatting is processed differently by the brain than compositions that would typically be considered "sound art."

Darrin and I both agree this feels like a more natural academic pursuit from the School of Art and opens up further research opportunities based on the findings we will go on to observe.

New Research Proposal:

Observation and recording of brainwave activity changes in response to a range of musical and soundscape compositions in order to examine whether a conventional musical framework is a significant component in the neural response to composed sonic stimuli. Participants will be played pieces of atonal music, noise music, soundscape & stochastic music in contrast to more conventional musical compositions such as pop, rock, jazz & classical. Responses to the stimuli will be measured via EEG.

ARCH1372 - Reading 3 :: The Perception, Evaluation and Creative Application of High Order Ambisonics In Contemporary Music Practice

The Perception, Evaluation and Creative Application of High Order Ambisonics In Contemporary Music Practice

Natasha Barrett

Ircam Composer in Research Report 2012

In her residency at IRCAM Barrett investigated the technical and artistic implementation of Higher Order Ambisonic techniques. In this paper Barrett investigated a range of Higher Order Ambisonics in two dimensional and three dimensional spatializations noting differences in perception of 4th and 7th order 3D decoding suggesting the 7th order decoding is the most optimal working in 3D giving the most ‘transparent’ and precise results - while in 2D, 12th order decodings were only marginally advantageous in complex scenes, suggesting that 7th order decodings were also the optimal format. Barrett also investigated Near Field Compensated Higher Order Ambisonics discovering that higher order encoding/decoding can result in more convincing NFC results albeit with a necessity to compensate some of the addition of low frequency content with high pass filtering which may remove some of the NFC effect. Barrett also noted when working with NFC that the loudspeaker distances in the decoding stage require consideration at the encoding stage, at 12th order noting a variance range of 50-200% for accurate translation. Barrett was also able to use an Eigenmike to capture scenes at a high resolution 4th order sound field and compared this with older lower resolution Soundfield microphone technology (SPS200 and ST250) noting a greater ‘openness’ and spatial accuracy with the Eigenmike. Barrett goes on to discuss some of the other considerations in composing for Higher Order Ambisonics such as monitoring issues, accuracy in translation and the compositional advantages of working at this level. I enjoyed this window into the artistic and technical application of HOA, Barrett’s work is certainly beneficial for those working with higher order ambisonics.

VART3459 - Production Strategies Journal 5

Possible alternative project

audiograffiti sonification RGB track from graf project last year. Use vocal samples to write rhythms and texture + melody.

http://youtu.be/oPG-VhU6Kiw

http://youtu.be/9FEgc2YQuMw

gating/enveloping for rhythms

ARCH1372 - Reading 2 :: An Ontology of Donald Schön’s Reflection in Designing

An Ontology of Donald Schön’s Reflection in Designing

John S Gero, Udo Kannengiesser

Key Centre of Design Computing and Cognition University of Sydney 2006


Gero and Kannengiesser present an articulated model of the design process primarily informed by the work of Donald Schön, in particular his notion of “reflection in action” within the design process. Gero and Kannengiesser identify two branches of this design model, the “functional” and “mechanistic” modes of reflection, dividing the critical design elements of “Function” “Behavior” and “Structure” and exploring the interplay between these elements within the mind of the designer, in three phases of “External” “Interpreted” and “Expected” outcomes for the design to exist. It is my understanding that Gero and Kannengiesser’s primary distinction between “functional” and “mechanistic” modes of reflection pertain to where the reflection is placed within the mind of the designer. In the “functional” model, reflection primarily occurs after action has taken place from the designer, altering design choices based on drafting, whereas the “mechanistic” model implies that the designer reflects on their wealth of experience in order to move systematically toward a refined design objective. I can particularly relate to the reflective design processes described here. Though much of the reflection in my design process is ‘functional’ in the execution stage, I aspire to work more ‘mechanistically’.

VART3510 - AkE Internship Journal Week 2

Following on from last week, I'm continuing to develop my software and look into existing research on brainwave entrainment.

In preparation for a literature review I spent some time on the RMIT library search system for academic research papers. I had not used this system before, such a wealth of knowledge freely available! I am glad at least in point in my program I have found a need to investigate published journals.

I have never assembled a literature review before, I have made some key notes based on my findings.

• Brainwave entrainment uses rhythmic auditory and visual stimuli to alter brainwave frequency and have been investigated since the late 1800's [Huang et al. 2008]

• Most commonly used auditory stimulation in brainwave entrainment experiments use isochronic, monaural or binaural beats.

• Binaural and monaural beats use 2 tones with similar frequencies that trick the brain into perceiving the difference in frequency as a "beating" - monaural beats sum these two signals into one, where the binaural method uses two independent tones are fed to either ear and the 'beating' is creating psycho acoustically.

• Isochronic tones are evenly spaced tones between moments of silence to create "beating.

• Binaural beats are best perceived when the carrier and standard tone frequencies are at approximately 400hz with differences between the two frequencies being no more than 35hz. [Krishnan et al. 2004]

• The Frequency Follow Response has been observed using audio cues, the EEG response has been correlated to the binaural beat frequency [the difference between tones] [Marsh et al 1970]

• Control factors for brainwave entrainment experiments have incorporated periods of white noise and measuring a baseline EEG response. 

• Recent studies controlling for personality traits have failed to produce statistically significant results. [Goodin et al. 2012]

• Recent controlled studies have concluded that binaural beat theta brainwave entrainment methods are no more effective than Pink noise [Stevens et al. 2003]

• The evidence that brainwave entrainment can be used to affect vigilance, performance and mood is largely anecdotal [Lane et al. 1997]

As is to be expected, the further I dig into the established literature - the more confounding the results. What is promising is that research into this area remains current with studies still being conducted locally at institutions like Swinburne Uni.


Darrin and I have a meeting tomorrow with Dr. Eva Cheng from RMIT to discuss the research.

VART3459 - Production Strategies Journal 4

Other algorithmic processes to pursue:

Markov Chains
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markov_chain

Serialism / Tone Row
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_row

Euclidean Rhythms (Godfried Toussaint banff paper)
http://aatpm.com/banff.pdf

Genetic Algorithms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_music
Bruce Jacob - Composing with Genetic Algorithms
https://ece.umd.edu/~blj/papers/icmc95.pdf

Lindenmayer Systems
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-system

Désordre’s algorithms
"Désordre’s algorithms. The main argument of Désordre consists of foreground and background textures: Foreground (accented, loud). Two simultaneous instances of the same basic process, melodic/rhythmic, one in each hand, both doubled at the octave, and white note (righthand) and black-notew (pentatonic, lefthand) modes; and Background (quiet).
http://theacademyofthefuture.tumblr.com/post/62193508590/an-algorithmic-model-of-gyorgy-ligetis-desordre
http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2011/7/109891-algorithmic-composition/fulltext

Cellular Automata
http://tones.wolfram.com/about/how.html

Chaos & Fractal Music
http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/~clark/nordmodularbook/nm_algorithmic.html

Rissett Rhythm
http://music.stackexchange.com/questions/4708/how-does-the-risset-rhythm-work

ARCH1372 - Reading 1 :: Estimating Room Impulse Responses from Recorded Balloon Pops

Estimating Room Impulse Responses from Recorded Balloon Pops

Jonathan S. Abel, Nicholas J. Bryan, Patty P. Huang, Miriam A. Kolar, and Bissera V. Pentcheva

AES 129th Convention, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2010 November 4–7

Abel et al. propose that Balloon Pop Impulse Response Recording is in most cases a more advantageous method for acoustic measurement however, properties of the impulse waveform create an undesired effect akin to comb-filtering when applied with convolution to other material. Abel et al. provide a methodology to avoid the aforementioned distortion through the synthesis and filtering of a pattern of echoes similar to those seen in a balloon pop impulse response recording. The echo sequence is generated in such a way as to create the same psychoacoustic impression as the original sequence of arrivals, though without the artifacts present in the recorded impulse method. I found the site specific example demonstrated in this article to be especially interesting, the application of synthesized/filtered impulse response convolution to authentically auralize a hymn performed in the 6th Century at the site of the Hagia Sophia. This example not only necessitates the methodology described in the article, but demonstrates the archeological, cultural and historical value of accurate acoustic measurement techniques.