Dr Polina Zioga, Director of Interactive Filmmaking Lab at Staffordshire University, will give a guest talk in the school.
Multi-Brain BCI Interaction for Live Cinema: Performer and Audience Participation, Cognition and Emotional Engagement
The fields of neural prosthetic technologies and Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) have witnessed in the past 15 years an unprecedented development, bringing together theories and methods from different scientific fields, digital media, and the arts. More in particular, artists have been amongst the pioneers of the design of relevant applications since their emergence in the 1960s, pushing the boundaries of applications in real-life contexts. With the new research, advancements, and since 2007, the new low-cost commercial-grade wireless devices, there is a new increasing number of computer games, interactive installations, films and performances that involve the use of these interfaces, combining scientific, and creative methodologies. The vast majority of these works use the brain-activity of a single participant. However, earlier, as well as recent examples, involve the simultaneous interaction of more than one participants or performers with the use of Electroencephalography (EEG)-based multi-brain BCIs. In this frame, ’Enheduanna—A Manifesto of Falling’, a live brain-computer cinema performance enabled for the first time the simultaneous real-time multi-brain interaction of more than two participants, including a performer and members of the audience, using a passive EEG-based BCI system. The event was realised as a neuroscientific study conducted in a real-life setting. The results obtained from the participants’ data analysis reveal new information and contribute on new hypotheses about the effects of the length of time, but also the role of the directing strategy, dramaturgy and narrative structure on the performer’s and audience's perception, cognitive state, and engagement.
About Dr Polina Zioga
Dr Polina Zioga is an award-winning hybrid artist, lecturer and the Director of the new Interactive Filmmaking Lab at the School of Computing and Digital Technologies of the Staffordshire University.
Her interdisciplinary background has influenced her research and creative practice, which for more than ten years has centred in the field of arts and the brain, combining creativity, technology and science. She holds a Ph.D from the Glasgow School of Art/University of Glasgow, selected as one of the Top-Ranked LABS Abstracts for 2017 by Leonardo (MIT Press). She has received grants, awards and commissions from international sources, like the NEON Organization, Glasgow School of Art Global Excellence Initiative Fund, Connecting Cities Urban Media Lab as part of the European project ‘Connecting Cities: Participatory City 2014’, MyndPlay, the Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands in Athens, The Hellenic-Dutch Association of Commerce and Industry (He.D.A.) and others. While she has collaborated with esteemed organisations in Europe and in UK including the Centre for Contemporary Arts Glasgow, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Northern Video Art Network (Finland, Norway, Greece, Hong Kong), iMAL (Brussels) and Fournos Center for Digital Culture (Athens).
Her creative work and research has been presented and published since 2004 in Europe, Asia, North and South America including: solo and group art exhibitions, video-art and film festivals, performances, international conferences, academic journals, invited talks and guest lectures.