On March 20th, guests experienced cross-disciplinary research in action! Led by neuro-engineer Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal and composer Anthony Brandt, guests were invited to a public demonstration of their research into neural signatures created by musical improvisation. 

Pianist Chelsea de Souza, a classical and jazz musician, wore a portable EEG cap while improvising variations on musical themes provided by the research team. The activity relayed by the EEG cap was visualized and projected onto a screen, in real time, by Badie Khaleghian, a multimedia artist and composer.  As a result, the audience was able to see and hear creativity and scientific research in action. 

Designed so that de Souza’s variations get progressively farther away from the original musical theme, the goal of this experiment was to observe whether there were any neural signatures of this creative behavior in a real-world setting. 

Before the musical experiment, Drs. Brandt and Contreras-Vidal provided guests with background on the research. The event included a question-and-answer session at the end. 

Featuring:

Anthony Brandt, composer, Professor of Composition and Theory, Rice University's Shepherd School of Music 

Badie Khaleghian, multimedia artist , doctoral student, Shepherd School of Music 

Chelsea de Souza, piano, doctoral student, Shepherd School of Music 

With neuro-engineers Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor, and Maxine Annel Pacheco Aguilar, and Aime Judith Aguilar Herrera from the University of Houston IUCRC BRAIN Center.