The BrainWave Drawings were initially developed by Nina Sobell (b. 1947, Patchogue, New York) at the Sepulveda Neuropsychology Laboratory in California, in 1973. Using an electroencephalogram (EEG) to capture and measure electrical activity in the brain, Sobell connected two participants to the apparatus, recording the amplitude and frequency of their respective brain activity. The data was also communicated in real time to a computer so that it could generate curved patterns. The artist explains: ‘In 1974, I first began using the computer as a tool in Interactive BrainWave Drawings to substantiate the efficacy of non-verbal communication between two people using a Digital Equipment Corporation Programmable Data Processor 12 Lab Computer. The results showed that both participants had at times emitted the same brain wave pattern in amplitude and frequency simultaneously, and that one person could non-verbally influence the brain wave patterns of the other.’. By cross-referencing information, Sobell makes visible moments of synergy in the brain activity. Using an Apple II computer, she subsequently produced a series of digital images based on these experiments, using the BASIC programming language in 1980. The documentation presented here in the vitrine illustrates this multi-faceted project.
Nina Sobell
Radical Software