Mill Experience Team becomes the first to visually demonstrate the impact of art on human brainwaves, in real-time
This world-first project from Art Fund and The Mill highlights how people's brains are stimulated when they experience art in museums and galleries. This incredible technology takes us one step further in understanding the fundamental value of art.
The first public trial took place last week at London's Courtauld Gallery. Those taking part viewed classic artworks by Vincent Van Gogh, Èdouard Manet, Claude Monet and Paul Cézanne while connected to an electroencephalogram (EEG) monitor. The outputs of the brainwaves were visualized on-screen in 3D, in real-time. Incredibly, this technology will be touring select museums across the UK in 2024!
This project was commissioned by Art Fund (the national charity for art) to illustrate the effect art can have on emotion, and in turn, boost museum and gallery visits. The Mill's exceptional experience team was the driving force behind making this intention a reality. In collaboration with artist Seph Li, we created a system that interprets electric signals coming from the brain and transforms them into three-dimensional visualisations. Whilst this has been seen before in a two-dimensional form, we are extremely proud to taking the tech a step further.
Will MacNeil, Creative Director at The Mill dove into a little more detail about what we see on screen,
When a user is more alert, the ribbons become wider. When someone is trying to make sense of something confusing, the ribbons start to spiral and weave. If something is shown that the person recognises, bright highlights appear.
This is a fantastic way to encourage people, young and old, to immerse themselves into art and culture and The Mill is honoured to have been involved and we really hope this inspires more people to head to museums ad galleries and truly experience art.
Details of the museums the project will be visiting in 2024 will be release in the coming months, so keep your eyes peeled!
