Neuromatic Game Art: Critical Play with Neurointerfaces AR 581 by Jahrmann Margarete

Game Art currently undergoes a rush of presence and importance in the context of artistic research, as it informs methods of insight and experiments. This happens at the same moment as new mobile interfaces linking body, brain, and electronic networks become available in a subtly gamified world. Ludic Theory, the concept of Flow, and the transformative potential of play will serve as theoretical frameworks for a series of publicly performed artistic experiments evolving around neurointerfaces.  Hypotheses / research questions / objectives According to our hypothesis the everyday availability of neurointerfaces will create new dimensions of social and ethical questions reaching from of privacy and surveillance to self-optimization, but will also carry the potential for new forms of creativity and interaction. As arts-based research question we take up the challenge to critically evaluate neurointerfaces as technological devices of potential everyday use. Our research objective is the creation of a new form of experimental game art – the neuromatic one – to contribute new knowledge, awareness, and resilience, and to elucidate ethical questions, possibilities and limitations of technologies that intrude the individual brain and to ultimately change self-optimization into self-expression.  Approach / methods In a series of staged and performed artworks informed by Game art, concepts of Flow and play, we will create a hybrid interplay and inquiry of questions around personal data and brain measurement informed by the neuroscientific research and techno-philosophical discourse that accompanies the project. By artistic re-engineering neurointerfaces will be transformed from intrusive measurement devices into participative and creative tools.  Level of originality / innovation The present project constitutes a unique, original, and urgently needed critical but playful artistic examination of an emerging technology. The prototypes and artefacts of our research, a new innovative form of modified playful neuromatic devices, will be the seed for further artistic and philosophical use.  Primary staff involved in the project The highly transdisciplinary project is carried out by five experienced researchers from complementary fields. The leading roles are held by artistic researchers. Margarete Jahrmann is an experienced artist, professor in the artistic research PhD program at Angewandte Vienna and in Game Arts at the Zurich University of the Arts. Ruth Schnell is a leading media artist and holds the chair for Digital Arts, Angewandte Vienna. The techno-philosophical research line is led by Mark Coeckelbergh (University of Vienna). Stefan Glasauer (Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg) guides the neuroscientific research. The group will be complemented by several young emerging artists and researchers.

contents
- Jahrmann Margarete, Charlotta Ruth, Thomas Wagensommerer, Georg Luif, Zarko Aleksic, Imani Rameses
navigation
abstract
Game Art currently undergoes a rush of presence and importance in the context of artistic research, as it informs methods of insight and experiments. This happens at the same moment as new mobile interfaces linking body, brain, and electronic networks become available in a subtly gamified world. Ludic Theory, the concept of Flow, and the transformative potential of play will serve as theoretical frameworks for a series of publicly performed artistic experiments evolving around neurointerfaces.  Hypotheses / research questions / objectives According to our hypothesis the everyday availability of neurointerfaces will create new dimensions of social and ethical questions reaching from of privacy and surveillance to self-optimization, but will also carry the potential for new forms of creativity and interaction. As arts-based research question we take up the challenge to critically evaluate neurointerfaces as technological devices of potential everyday use. Our research objective is the creation of a new form of experimental game art – the neuromatic one – to contribute new knowledge, awareness, and resilience, and to elucidate ethical questions, possibilities and limitations of technologies that intrude the individual brain and to ultimately change self-optimization into self-expression.  Approach / methods In a series of staged and performed artworks informed by Game art, concepts of Flow and play, we will create a hybrid interplay and inquiry of questions around personal data and brain measurement informed by the neuroscientific research and techno-philosophical discourse that accompanies the project. By artistic re-engineering neurointerfaces will be transformed from intrusive measurement devices into participative and creative tools.  Level of originality / innovation The present project constitutes a unique, original, and urgently needed critical but playful artistic examination of an emerging technology. The prototypes and artefacts of our research, a new innovative form of modified playful neuromatic devices, will be the seed for further artistic and philosophical use.  Primary staff involved in the project The highly transdisciplinary project is carried out by five experienced researchers from complementary fields. The leading roles are held by artistic researchers. Margarete Jahrmann is an experienced artist, professor in the artistic research PhD program at Angewandte Vienna and in Game Arts at the Zurich University of the Arts. Ruth Schnell is a leading media artist and holds the chair for Digital Arts, Angewandte Vienna. The techno-philosophical research line is led by Mark Coeckelbergh (University of Vienna). Stefan Glasauer (Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg) guides the neuroscientific research. The group will be complemented by several young emerging artists and researchers.
Jahrmann Margarete, Charlotta Ruth, Thomas Wagensommerer, Georg Luif, Zarko Aleksic, Imani Rameses - Neuromatic Game Art: Critical Play with Neurointerfaces AR 581 - 2022
Meta
Comments
Terms

NEUROMATIC GAN PORTRAIT GAME:

THE ARTIST IS MEASURED

In a 3-room parkour an artifical portrait is generated.

To read more about the real experiment we developed in relation to this installation see EEG-workshop.

To see 3D footage from the installation, visit our blog.

NEUROMATIC

replay

GAME ART

1.FACE-RECOGNITION

In room 1, "face-recognition" the visitor is instructed to have their photo taken using software based on Chinese facial recognition.

In room 2, an artist is hooked up to a professional 32-channel EEG headset that measures the visual reaction of the artist to real photographic or synthetically generated portraits via EEG studying the image-data process.

2.THE ARTIST IS MEASURED

In room 3, a generative portrait of the last visitor is created with the help of a deep neural network system. In a gamified "result" the visitor gets a social score based on how fast the portrait was generated. The network constructs the portrait “from scratch”: the photo of the visitor is not used directly (as in the case of image processing), but only for comparison. The network thus takes on the role of the portraitist.

to see further portraits visit our blog

3.THE PORTRAIT IS GENERATED

Tip

Tip