2025 - ONGOING
3D Modeling, VR Environment Creation, Data Analysis and Manipulation, and Audio Production
Traces of Thought is an interactive piece investigating how the human brain produces thoughts, and how neuroimaging technologies are able to decode the neural networks behind these cognitive processes. The project depicts my personal mental spaces and neural activity through sound and abstract forms. By immersing themselves into my headspace with the use of VR, audiences are encouraged to consider the tangible nature of thought itself and how it might be translated into concrete neural activity. The project invites viewers to question their own understanding of thoughts and to reflect on technology’s growing ability to decode them. What implications does this have for personal privacy and identity? And would we remain truly free in a world where our innermost thoughts could be accessed, with or without our consent?
For my senior thesis research I decided to explore neuroimaging technologies and the new technological advancements that are transforming them into invasive machines. I was fascinated by the way the brain produces thoughts and how this process makes something apparently so abstract, tangible and therefore accessible, malleable. My project, Traces of Thought, was therefore born as a way to inform audiences of this contemporary threat and its fast-paced advancements.
I started by recording my brain activity through the use of an EEG machine in three mental states: peace, which was characterised by absence of thought and emotional distress; active thought, a state where I challenged my brain with mental exercises that did not require emotional involvement; and emotional stress, a state of little rational mental reasoning and predominant emotional involvement. To help my brain reach those mental states while under inspection, I recorded my brain activity while doing activities that help me feel in those mindsets.
Once the data had been recorded, I translated it into readable, or better perceptible, activity. Because the emitted data from an EEG headset presents itself as a wave graph, the most direct way to translate it into something else is to use sound waves. The frequency and amplitude of the EEG data waves can be translated into amplitude of sound waves.
Thanks to Claude I generated a Python script which is able to translate brain waves into certain frequencies and volumes. The headset I used has a 5-channel data capture system, therefore I created 5 different audio tracks for each mental state and combined them with the use of Adobe Audition. I composed the audio tracks myself with the use of Ableton.
Currently, I am in the phase of translating the sound waves into visual waves, and producing the VR experience. On the right, you can see some tests I did on the visual aspects of the waves, trying to find the right aesthetic.
Once all the data has been translated into both audio and visual, I will import it into a VR world through Unreal Engine and create an immersive experience. The localisation of brain action will be emulated within the digital space, showing which areas of the brain are the most active during each mental state with both the visual and auditory component. When wearing the headset, the audience will be able to explore three separate environments corresponding to the three mental states by toggling between them with a command. Observing the difference in mental activity in each state, will allow the viewer to infer the ability of EEG machines to interpret brain activity based on recognisable activity patterns.
The VR experience will be accompanied by a triptych (which you can see at the top of this page) showing the data flowing from EEG waves, to audio waves, and finally to visual waves, allowing the audience to understand where the audio and visuals experienced in the VR come from.
The project will be presented at Galerie Au Roi, in Paris, May 15 and 16, 2026. On the left, you can see the mock up of the set up I plan to execute in the gallery space, with two headsets, three screens to execute the triptych, and a research book that compiles my whole process and research.