Global Pandemic
A modern rendition of “Chilean Drought”
04/2022
About the piece
“Global Pandemic” is an EEG biofeedback performance. The goal of this piece was to create a modern rendition of Jacqueline Humbert’s and David Rosenboom’s 1970s “Chilean Drought,” that is not only current in terms of the technological implementation, but that also addresses a current subject matter. While the original piece references Chile’s Great Drought of the late 60s and was realized through extensive analog hardware, “Global Pandemic” was written about the COVID-19 pandemic and utilizes an OpenBCI EEG headband and Max MSP patch.
Left: From “Chilean Drought” score (www.davidrosenboom.com), Right: Max MSP patch for “Global Pandemic.”
This rendition includes three instrumentals: piano (playing the original “Chilean Drought” score), tenor saxophone, and flute (both improvising). They accompany three groups of different vocal styles, as per the original piece. The relative audible levels of the three vocal groups are directly controlled by the brain performer, who is wearing an OpenBCI headband with 4 channels of EEG. She both intentionally modulates her brain waves as well allows herself to be influenced by what she is hearing, creating the biofeedback loop. Frequency band powers of theta, alpha, and beta waves are sent via OSC from OpenBCI to Max MSP, where they are directly mapped to the levels of the incoming microphone signals.
“Global Pandemic” was first performed at Georgia Tech’s Brain Music Lab spring 2022 concert (click on the video above!).
Credits:
A huge thank-you to our performers and those who helped organize the performance and the concert!
Score & Arrangement: Sophia Mehdizadeh
Tech lead & Production: Sophia Mehdizadeh
Brain performer: Rhythm Jain
Pianist & Musical direction: Daniel Ethridge
Flute: Qianyi (Rose) Sun
Tenor Saxophone: Lauren McCall
Theta Vocals: Martina Albano & Neha Rajagopalan
Alpha Vocals: Chad Pozarycki & Sophia Mehdizadeh
Beta Vocals: Timothy Min
EEG & Audio tech.: Noel Alben & Thiago Roque
Concert audio: Mir Jeffres
Video: Bryce Irvin
Poster/Programme: Timothy Min
Brain Music Lab director: Dr. Grace Leslie