The possibilities to use music interactively with another medium are endless. But what if scientific research is also added? Or, combined into "Art / Science installations"?

 The impressive installation "Mutual Wave Machine" by Suzanne Dikker and Matthias Oostrik is one of the world's most successful art / science projects of the last decade. The history of this project leads us back to a 2010 performance by Marina Abramovic, entitled "The Artist is Present", at the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMa). It was a test of non-verbal communication, in which two chairs were set up in a dimly lit, medium-sized square room. Marina sat on one of those chairs, a loose-fitting fabric beautifully draped around her, hiding her chair. An empty chair stood opposite her. People from the audience were invited sit down on it and connect with her by looking at her -if you had the courage to do so, because it appeared that Marina could make you cry or laugh with her gaze alone.

 Through theatermaker Robert Wilson's Watermill Center, Abramovic came into contact with neurolinguist Suzanne Dikker during the "Annual Art & Science: Insights into Consciousness Workshop". Participants of this workshop included artists, neuroscientists and psychotherapists. During the 2010 iteration, they discussed The Artist Is Present at length and concluded that it raised scientifically interesting questions regarding the relationship between eye contact, human connectedness and brain synchronization. What does it mean to be on the same wavelength with someone else? To ensure that the project served both artistic and scientific purposes, the team was expanded with Matthias Oostrik, a Dutch media artist.

 The installation, "Measuring the Magic of Mutual Gaze" was exhibited in Moscow in 2011 as part of Abramovic' retrospective exhibition "The Artist is Present", at the famous "Garage Museum of Contemporary Art". The scientific research took place with the help of sensors placed on the head of the subjects to measure the electrical currents in the brain (EEG). The effect of this electrical activity became visible in the static projection of two images of the brain. Moments of synchrony between the brainwaves of the two people were reflected by lightning rod style flows between the two rotating brains. Marina performed during the premiere by taking a seat in one of the chairs, in front of people from the audience.

Two years later, the theater premiere of “The Mutual Wave Machine” took place during Museum Night at EYE Film Institute. This time, Oostrik and Dikker collaborated with video artist Peter Burr, as well as Matthew Patterson Curry (aka Safety Scissors), who provided the project with sound design and composition.

Even before opening hour, a line of festival goers was waiting to participate in the project. At a separate table, employees were busy equipping the candidates with sensors needed for the experiment.

The arrangement was in a blackbox theater of EYE, an egg-shaped sphere containing two seats in front of the rather steep grandstand. The sound design gently crackled and murmured, and the spectators assumed an attitude of calm, almost religious attention and curiosity.

Two participants sat opposite each other on the seats, they whispered, looked at each other, their thoughts discoloring the walls of the cocoon and turning the murmur into music. Through the sound of the music you could guess whether or not the test subjects were in communication with each other. Participants' EEG was recorded and used for scientific analysis.

The “sound” within this project has a clear iconic function; the resounding result indicates that the participants are "on the same wavelength".

 But is there also room for the music itself as the aim of this research? Yes: Dikker and Oostrik recently collaborated with rapper Residente and pop artist Bad Bunny, both of Puerto Rican origin: they recorded their brainwaves with the intention of including brain synchronization in their joint song Bellacoso.

In this project, entitled “Ondas”, Residente sought out other music artists with whom at first glance he has little in common. With Bad Bunny, who is a generation younger than he is, he drank a glass of rum and they admired dancers, with the goal to find common ground. Their brainwaves synchronized as they tried to recall a song together.

 And thus we arrive at the main course of the musical dinner.

Music is not only capable of reflecting when people come together (like the brainwaves in the Mutual Wave Machine do), but it also brings people together!

That is its strength, that is the aroma that, above all else, predominates in the composer's kitchen.

Loek Dikker

Jazz pianist
Film composer
Chairman of Music Institute MultiMedia

WORLD CUISINE

An interview with MALU PEETERS

SOUND ARTIST/COMPOSER/SOUND DESIGNER

Malu Peeters is a sound artist/composer/sound designer who lives and works in Berlin and Amsterdam. She creates radio works and installations, electronic music and (spatial) sound design. Malu combines field recordings and Foley with synths, voices and (custom-made) instruments.

Malu studied composition and image & sound at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. She co-founded the theatre collective le nu perdu (2006-2012) and as of 2012 Malu regularly collaborates with Berlin-based media artist collective machina eX where sound design gets made into the shape of games and toys. Malu is also a member of the Swiss/German performance collective henrike iglesias since 2016, touring internationally to a.o. FIBA Buenos Aires, Brut Vienna, Münchner Kammerspiele, Heidelberger Stückmarkt and Sophiensaele Berlin.

Malu works as supervising sound editor and sound designer for films and documentaries, most recently on Aasivissuit (2020) with Dutch filmmaker and visual artist Jasper Coppes, that screened its world premiere on Nuuk International Film Festival, Greenland;

Malu was a personal assistant to Dutch composer Louis Andriessen (2009 - 2015)and the co-founder, writer and board member of hard//hoofd: the Dutch online magazine for art and (new-)journalism;