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 Using a wireless brain scanner that reads both muscular and
brainwave data, the system allows the user to manipulate the film's
structure. Creator Richard Ramchurn said the audience can
subconsciously project their feelings onto the film and have these
feelings visualized by the shape the film takes.
"Scanners is a film platform that uses live data from people's
brains to cut and mix a film where you have an effect loop - a
two-way effect loop - whereby, watching the film you change it and
it changes you," Ramchurn told Reuters.
Based in Manchester, Ramchurn was inspired to developed the
experimental system after reading 'In the Blink of an Eye', by
acclaimed film editor Walter Murch. In the book, Murch theorises
that the rates and rhythms of blinking relate to the rhythm and
sequence of thoughts and emotions.
Using a commercially available electroencephalography (EEG) headset
from company NeuroSky, Ramchurn's first prototype set out to prove
the platform's potential. The next step was to create video
specifically for the project, including shooting the 15-minute film
with enough footage for all the varying narrative strands that each
viewer could bring to it.
"The initial prototype used off-the-shelf footage and basically just
proved to us that there was something there with brain signals
feeding back a film experience. Our next stage was to try and really
make a film specifically for the platform. And that involved making
something that was much bigger than the duration called for. I mean;
we made a 15 minute film but it was more like making a feature,"
said Ramchurn.
"The opportunities that allowed us was rather than making a linear
film, we made a film that was much more quantum. We had multiple
stories or happenings at the same time. And we were able to show
what's happening inside somebody's mind, what's happening in,
almost, their imagination at the same time as the reality," he
added.
The EEG headset reads the different brainwaves; Alpha, Beta, Gamma,
Delta and Theta. Ramchurn said he is specifically using the Alpha
brain waves, which are important for creativity.
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The headset has two sensors; one that sits on the forehead and one
that clips to the ear lobe. The forehead sensor picks up both
muscular and brainwave data, while the sensor on the ear lobe just
picks up muscular data. With this information, the processor inside
the headset can separate the muscular data to isolate and identify
the various brainwaves.
Ramchurn said that the rhythms of the editing and the way the film
jumps from scene to scene depended on the mindset of the person
watching it; and this is largely out of the person's control.
The filmmaker recently took the technology to Liverpool for a field
test; inviting curious passers-by to give 'Scanners' a try inside a
caravan converted into a mobile cinema.
"Watching other people make connections with their brain is really
fascinating. And each time I watch someone else create the film,
they make new jumps that I've not seen before," he said.
While the platform was developed to explore a possible new dimension
of visual art, Ramchurn says the system is the perfect device for
exploring dreams because it brings a person's subconscious to the
forefront, visualizing it in front of their eyes. He added that
scientists are close to developing a device that is capable of
making detailed recordings of a dream.
"I'm really excited that science is acknowledging that dreams
actually exist and they can be measured. And being able to tap into
that data is, for me, gives some real opportunities to tell stories
or even create platforms that can communicate with people in a
different way," he said.
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