Description: The Muse headband registers the electrical impulses from brain activity and sends the data by bluetooth to the computer. We mapped (programmed) the data in a way that the Alpha brainwaves (meditative mind state - the inner ring of the eye) is seen in contrast to the average of all the other brainwaves (outer ring - beta, theta, delta). The music is a compilation of frequencies aimed to balance the energy centers in the body and composed with bits of sound aimed to trigger certain memories or emotions from the subconscious mind - each sound relating to a developmental stage of the human being. The goal of the visuals was to observe the effects of meditation on our brain activity. 

VISUAL:

For the creative output of the data we considered to design the iris of the eye to infer the activity of the third eye which in the Yogic tradition is considered the spiritual center of the soul, and in the medical field, it’s known as the Pineal gland, located visually between and slightly above the eyes. According to the Cleveland clinic, the pineal gland was commonly called the “third eye” for many reasons, including its location deep in the center of the brain and its connection to light via the circadian rhythm and melatonin secretion.

Premise of the Project: The main idea for this project was to create a meditative experience involving serial communication between the user (sensors), the physical components (Arduino) and the computer (P5). We’d lead the participant into a meditation, a visual journey that will perhaps involve different states of mind, from fear to kindness, or a simple imaginative experience of exploring their future and best selves. We’d map their markers (registration of heart data and brain activity (MUSE) and the P5 (with a predetermined code for various brushes / stroke weight / movements) to draw a sketch of their emotional/mind state during the experience, for ex. showing the difference between their markers when they started and when they finished the experience, or when they went through a specific instruction, or when they experienced joy / fear / difficult emotion. The idea is to show a range of data captured in an art form.

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS:

Technology:

Muse Headset

Capacitive Sensor

LED Light

Source: Pinterest. Inspiration for visual representation of the data.

USER EXPERIENCE:

How do we measure the physical interaction? The heart beat and the brain sensors don’t give enough feedback for a physical experience.

So the big thing to consider is:

1. What is the physical interaction part to our project? Make it physical.

2. How do we make it participatory? Maybe we have a button that makes the participant to let us know they are ready to begin the experience? They press it?

3. What does the user want? What are their expectation of a meditation, from the meditation?

4. What does our preparation stage involve? How are the lights? On, Off, Dimmed?

5. How do we start?

6. What is the way out of the experience if they decide to exit the experience? - Give them ownership over the experience.

7. What is the meditation experience itself? What are they sitting in? Do we build a certain cushion or a chair? Is it a room? Is it a space? How do we design it? Are their hands comfortable to hold the heart sensor on the finger? Station design.

8. When they meditate, maybe the markers would make the light shift from cool to warm, or an LED strip that would involve rgb colors? The light bulb can be one LED (similar to a gallery spot light that we could diffuse and keep specular, or have an LED that is attached around the seat, or behind an object (like a tv screen) that would reflect/project the ambient light.

9. Does the heartbeat produce a sound? Or would that be distracting? Maybe there is a trigger to start the sound?

10. What is our recover stage? When they are ready to open their eyes and move - maybe they can press a button to turn the lights on?

    Conclusion: If our project is expressive - it’s more about us and not about the user. If it’s a tool or an instrument - we will involve them in the process to get out of it something for themselves and on their own terms.

INTRODUCING BABY YODA:

Because our experience lacked the user experience (physical aspect) we thought about what could we do to add it. I remembered one my friend’s recent posts on social media with the baby Yoda and how happy she was holding it and made the connection to the Yoda’s role in the Mandalorian. It had that calming and hypnotizing effect and everyone wanted to steal him. It’s an adored character by many. We noticed that on the floor when people would see him. It would trigger them to want pick him up. That was a decision we made with Nima.

Another factor that contributed to this decision was based in our instructor’s feedback (Tom Igoe) according to which there was too much explanation we have to give to someone, and too many steps to get into the experience. So here we decided to link the meditation sound with Yoda, and with the Muse visual projection.

Then i asked a colleague who was making an item involving ‘touch’ to trigger a response and asked her about what sensors she used for it. It was a capacitive sensor. I had it in my bin from the last project. Voila! That’s how baby Yoda made it to the project. The idea behind is when we pick the baby, and touch his belly button (where the sensor is) - the experience would start and the LED lights around him will light up. When the meditator wants to opt out of the experience, they just take their hands off Yoda and the experience stops. This change allowed the meditator to have autonomy over their experience. And the linking of music with Muse, with Yoda - allowed for less time in setting things up.

The user would enter the room. The lights are dim. There is a diffuser with lavender / tea tree oil fragrance filling up the room. The user is invited to sit or lay down on a cushion and handed the Muse headset to be placed on the forehead, tightly pressing on behind years to ensure skin contact. He/she is encouraged to keep their eyes closed and given the option to either listen to the apron. 10 min sound only or be guided into a meditation of their choice: breathing meditation, mindfulness of thoughts or emotions, or a visualization of their future version of themselves. Once the participant is ready and settled to start, he / she is instructed further:

“When you are ready, you can pick up the Yoda and / or place your hands gently on the front of the toy’s belly. Your touch will activate the beginning of the meditation experience and the lights will indicate contact, or in other words, that you have full control of your experience. If at any time, for any reason, you choose to opt out of the experience, simply take off your hands or place Yoda aside and the sound will stop, and the experience end.”

The projection on the wall in front of the participant was a choice so whoever didn't feel comfortable to keep their eyes closed / gaze down, they could watch their brain activity on the screen. However, the curiosity of seeing the graph would take the participant out of the meditative state of mind and not be conducive to reaching a state of Alpha - calmness and focus.

10 min meditation brain activity sketch. The blue lines stand for Alpha brainwaves - meditative state of conciousness. The orange outer lines stand for the average of all the other brainwaves: Beta, Theta, and Delta.

From a design perspective, I’ve learned how important is to give the user the autonomy over their own experience and create the flow of the experience in a way that is easy to understand, intuitive to follow, and able to opt in / opt out. Choice and flexibility is important to offer, as well as understanding what is the outcome as designers, we want our audience to walk away with.

Technically, I’ve learned how to ideate, test, iterate, and finally produce a product / service that is useful and also tuned to the intuitive responses we already have as human beings; how to accomplish a goal while working in collaboration with other creative artists capitalizing on the human ingenuity, the strengths of each teammate, and common goal. I’ve learned how to bring up the multi sensory aspect of design to the experience to enhance the feeling of wellbeing and meditation, making technology in service of the goal and not having it as a predominant feature leading the experience.

Experience wise, examining the graph above, we can observe how even a small interval of settling in makes a difference in someone’s brain activity. Even if the outside environment changed and peaked our meditator’s attention (sound, noise, voices, etc.) and the orange graph spiked, overtime the blue graph stayed relatively stable in relationship to the other brainwaves being stimulated. This is a great achievement to see, because meditation really helps us become less reactive and more responsive instead. With a cultivated practice, we can become more centered and take life with more balance even if life circumstances become somewhat intense on the outside. This is the purpose of our project, to show that meditation can really impact one’s life in considerable ways. And this is a small way in which we could see an indication of that being true.

Team:

Creative Direction, Meditation Lead, Producer: Andriana Mereuta @andriana.mereuta

Creative Direction, Creative Code, Sound Meditation: Zeyna Benbrahim El Andaloussi @zey.studios

Creative Code, Serial Communication: Nima Niazi @nimanns

Instructors:

David Rios, Jeff Feddersen

Advisors:

Tom Igoe, Jason Snell