An electroencephalophone or encephalophone is an
experimental musical instrument
An experimental musical instrument (or custom-made instrument) is a musical instrument that modifies or extends an existing instrument or class of instruments, or defines or creates a new class of instrument. Some are created through simple modif ...
and diagnostic tool which uses
brain waves (measured in the same way as an
EEG) to generate or modulate sounds.
Dr. R. Furth, a mathematical physicist, and Dr. E.A. Bevers, a physiologist, invented the encephalophone in the early 1940s at the University of Edinburgh. The cross between an electroencephalograph (EEG) and sonar technology, it was meant to be a way for ordinary physicians to diagnose neuropathologies.
In 1973, one was designed by
Erkki Kurenniemi, a Finnish
electronic music
Electronic music is a Music genre, genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or electronics, circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromech ...
ian and
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machine
A machine is a physical system using Power (physics), power to apply Force, forces and control Motion, moveme ...
researcher. In the summer of 1968 Kurenniemi visited an electroacoustic music conference organized by Teatro Comunale in Florence, Italy. During the conference Kurenniemi was introduced to Manford L. Eaton’s ideas of biofeedback as a source of musical or composition material. Two of Kurenniemi’s instruments - Dimi-S and Dimi-T - are loosely based on these ideas.
In the 1970s,
David Rosenboom and
Richard Teitelbaum
Richard Lowe Teitelbaum (May 19, 1939 – April 9, 2020) was an American composer, keyboardist, and improvisor. A student of Allen Forte, Mel Powell, and Luigi Nono, he was known for his live electronic music and synthesizer performances. He was ...
used EEG based devices to enable performers to create sound and music with their
brain waves.
Eduardo Reck Miranda is currently (~2004) involved in research which uses neural networks and brain interfaces to create music.
James Fung
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
,
Ariel Garten, and
Steve Mann (~2003) have created brainwave systems to control different musical variables in an interactive way, including underwater brainwave concerts.
[http://wearcam.org/icmc2007/]
The electroencephalophone is a
quintephone
In organology, the study of musical instruments, many methods of classifying instruments exist. Most methods are specific to a particular cultural group and were developed to serve that culture's musical needs. Culture-based classification metho ...
in the sense that it creates sound from the "5th classical element" (i.e. from beyond the world of matter).
Related concepts
In addition to sound-production, regenerative brainwave musical performances use brainwave interfaces to modify or manipulate or play along with sounds of other instruments in a live performance context.
See also
*
Electrocardiophone
References
Experimental musical instruments
Quintephones
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