- Nicholas Wong
SENSORY SYMPHONY // GUILDHALL SCHOOL OF MUSIC AND DRAMA
Updated: Jul 6, 2020
Sensory Symphony
The concept for this project was to have audience members drive visual content with their thoughts/emotions. To achieve this, we took electromagnetic brainwave readings from audience members via EEG headsets, which sent the brainwave readings in the form of OSC data which was then fed into Notch, the real-time 3D visual software that was used to create the visual content. The audience members were subjected to a Harpist which performed a repertoire of songs meant to stimulate different moods, and the audience were able to visualise their brainwave activity via the projected video content which was projected onto the set-piece behind the Harpist. In addition to my associate designer role for this project, I also had a chance to explore some of the creative technology aspects of the performance piece. Being a technically challenging project, we had to research different types of brainwave frequencies, and what the varying activity meant, and then figure out how to get the information off the headsets and into the control machine which we were using to generate the real-time visual content. There was also a technical challenge in having multiple headsets streaming OSC data to a single machine and figuring out how to have 12 different sets of frequencies affect the visual content while still having the design remain aesthetically pleasing.
Creative Director - Dan Shorten
Technical Director - Richard Moores Associate Designer - Nicholas Wong Lead Video Engineer - Nina Thoene
Assistant Video Engineer - Dan Barnicott
Assistant Designers - Fergus Kerr, Sam Harris
Sound designer - Charlie Vince-Crowhurst
Staff Supervisor/Support - Josh Garner Lighting Team - Matt Hockley, Peter Lawrence, Jon Armstrong
Stage Manager - Em Davis
Production Manager - Jon Hare
Harpist - Helena Ricci