Sleep graphs to become art
14-10-2010
An art experiment in Australia is set to transform the brainwaves and body movements of sleep into a series of artworks. Artist Lisa Carrie Goldberg is working with SymbioticA and the University of Western Australia’s Sleep Research Facility to create the artworks, in a series called “Structuring Somnolence”.
Participants will sleep in the facility wired up to monitors that track electrical activity in the body, as well as movements throughout the night. The resulting line graphs will be used as the artwork. Graphs that show brainwaves typically display peaks and troughs of activity as the body goes through cycles of REM and non-REM sleep.
“We’re asking the volunteers to come in and pick a landscape drawing that they would like to re-enact through body positioning and sleep. We’re going to move their body in the sleep lab to create the image of that drawing,” explained the artist. “It’s playing off that idea that the visual similarities between art and architecture and sleep science.”
Participants will sleep in the facility wired up to monitors that track electrical activity in the body, as well as movements throughout the night. The resulting line graphs will be used as the artwork. Graphs that show brainwaves typically display peaks and troughs of activity as the body goes through cycles of REM and non-REM sleep.
“We’re asking the volunteers to come in and pick a landscape drawing that they would like to re-enact through body positioning and sleep. We’re going to move their body in the sleep lab to create the image of that drawing,” explained the artist. “It’s playing off that idea that the visual similarities between art and architecture and sleep science.”
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