Russian artist Dmitry Morozov turns neural activity into art. He’s used brainwaves to control robotic musical instruments and harnessed psychic powers to stage performance art. His latest creation, called Solaris, works like a mood ring, moves like a lava lamp, and looks like The Matrix while making its observer feel like a Delphic Oracle.
Morozov outfits observers with a $499 electroencephalography headset and places them in front of a curvy, chrome tank filled with a glowing, UV-sensitive liquid. He instructs viewers to communicate with the inert object, a seemingly bizarre request, but the headset picks up the resulting brainwaves and activates a powerful magnet hidden under the placid pool’s surface. Magnetic pulses linked to the viewer’s brainwave then stimulate an inky ferrofluid. The splotch of black ooze reacts in turn, roiling in response to stressful thoughts and smoothing as the observer calms down.
via Wired
Image: DMITRY MOROZOV