An electroencephalophone or encephalophone is an
experimental musical instrument
An experimental musical instrument (or custom-made instrument) is a musical instrument that modifies or extends an existing instrument or class of instruments, or defines or creates a new class of instrument. Some are created through simple modi ...
and diagnostic tool which uses
brain waves (measured in the same way as an
EEG
Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The biosignals detected by EEG have been shown to represent the postsynaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons in the neocortex ...
) to generate or modulate sounds.
Dr. R. Furth, a mathematical physicist, and Dr. E.A. Bevers, a physiologist, invented the encephalophone in the early 1940s at the University of Edinburgh. The cross between an electroencephalograph (EEG) and sonar technology, it was meant to be a way for ordinary physicians to diagnose neuropathologies.
In 1973, one was designed by
, a Finnish
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...
ian and
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
researcher. In the summer of 1968 Kurenniemi visited an electroacoustic music conference organized by Teatro Comunale in Florence, Italy. During the conference Kurenniemi was introduced to Manford L. Eaton’s ideas of biofeedback as a source of musical or composition material. Two of Kurenniemi’s instruments - Dimi-S and Dimi-T - are loosely based on these ideas.
In the 1970s,
David Rosenboom
David Rosenboom (born 1947 in Fairfield, Iowa) is a composer-performer, interdisciplinary artist, author, and educator known for his work in American experimental music.
Rosenboom has explored various forms of music, languages for improvisation, ...
and
Richard Teitelbaum
Richard Lowe Teitelbaum (May 19, 1939 – April 9, 2020) was an American composer, keyboardist, and improvisor. A student of Allen Forte, Mel Powell, and Luigi Nono, he was known for his live electronic music and synthesizer performances. He was ...
used EEG based devices to enable performers to create sound and music with their
brain waves.
Eduardo Reck Miranda
Eduardo Reck Miranda (born 1963) is a Brazilian composer of chamber and electroacoustic pieces but is most notable in the United Kingdom for his scientific research into computer music, particularly in the field of human-machine interfaces wh ...
is currently (~2004) involved in research which uses neural networks and brain interfaces to create music.
James Fung,
Ariel Garten
Ariel Garten (born September 24, 1979) is a Canadian artist, scientist and intellectual known for her work in integrating art and science. She is the co-founder and former CEO of InteraXon.
Early life and education
Garten was born in Toronto. ...
, and
Steve Mann (~2003) have created brainwave systems to control different musical variables in an interactive way, including underwater brainwave concerts.
[http://wearcam.org/icmc2007/]
The electroencephalophone is a
quintephone in the sense that it creates sound from the "5th classical element" (i.e. from beyond the world of matter).
Related concepts
In addition to sound-production, regenerative brainwave musical performances use brainwave interfaces to modify or manipulate or play along with sounds of other instruments in a live performance context.
See also
*
Electrocardiophone
References
Experimental musical instruments
Quintephones
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