A sea of particles morphing to the beat of a 5-year-old's brianwaves put a synaptic twist on music visualizers in genetecist-turned-artist [Peter Crnokrak](http://theluxuryofprotest.com/)'s new video "What Need Angel" based on the music of Burial. "The piece is essentially a form of engineered synesthesia," he explains to The Creators Project.

The son of a close friend, the child was vital to the project, says Crnokrak. "I wanted to use a subject that was not too old and thus prejudicial with regard to the type of music being listened to." In a two-part experiment, Crnokrak says he visualized EEG data of the 5-year-old's brainwaves while listening to music by [Burial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B-GmRHGuDA) in a dark room. Then he exposed him to a series of flashing colors and shapes without any sounds. Some of the readings matched up between the audio and visual brainwaves, and the artist used those congruences to build a "visual transcription of the music experience."

What Need Angel is a synesthetic transcription of the brainwave response of a five year old boy while listening to music. The project aims to develop a systematic methodology that allows for primal biological experiences to be visualised to facilitate the understanding of the emotional responses to stimuli.

The computational video uses dynamic particle animation segments that are woven together to form a seamless, though at times jarring, reflection of the music listening experience. Particle behaviours such as size, speed, colour and direction of movement are all determined by the user’s passive brainwave responses to music stimuli. 

The project was accomplished using a commercially available electroencephalograph headset that measures qualitative and quantitative changes in neural activity when a stimulus is experienced. The first session involved the recording of EEG responses to music in a darkened room. In a second session entirely devoid of music, the boy was exposed to a continuous array of visual stimuli such as solid colours, gradient colours and variably animated geometric shapes. The neural responses to the visual arrays that matched the EEG audio responses were used to devise an architecture for the visual transcription of the music experience. The key to the piece was devising a visual system who’s form and compositional dynamics matched the response to music.

Music by Burial : Loner, Kindred, Hiders and Come Down To Us.

Select Press – Creators Project : http://tinyurl.com/pffq8m2 . FACT Magazine : http://tinyurl.com/pzf78u2 . WIRED : http://tinyurl.com/plnldq8

What Need Angel was an honoree of the 2016 Webby Award in art & experimental film.

What Need Angel

See more of Peter Crnokrak's work [on his website](http://theluxuryofprotest.com/).

_If you also have an awesome project to share, email us: [editor@thecreatorsproject.com](mailto:editor@thecreatorsproject.com)._

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Artist Peter Crnokrak is using EEGs to translate music into mesmerizing visuals.

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A 5-Year-Old's Brainwaves Power This Synesthetic Music Visualizer

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A 5-Year-Old's Brainwaves Power This Synesthetic Music Visualizer

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