EEG detectors measure electrical activity along your scalp to match certain types of electrical brain activity to “brainwave” states. Anyone familiar with the chemical-free high of the decade, binaural beats, will already be cosy with this concept. Most medical grade detectors can have as many as 19 inputs, where most retail models only go up to four or multiply several signals on one channel. Toys such as the Force Trainer and Mindball often detect muscle movements to make up the difference, which for the practical purposes of computer control, is actually a benefit. These devices are usually intended as meditation aids or gaming controllers, but as you can see the uses extend far beyond such practical applications…

Want to be your own brain wave siren like Lu Chi Psi Chic? “These aren’t the nerds you’re looking for.”

In fact they are. Milton Bros made the Force Trainer to allow the budding Jedi to push a ball up a tube via brainwave control over an air motor. Cannibalizing the headset unit, some enterprising folk coupled the EEG detector with an arduino board to turn the toy into a MIDI controller (peep the schematics via Hack-a-Day.)

If this looks a little too involved, have no fear. Several manufacturers have released stand-alone devices that are not much more expensive and offer some impressive degrees of control. Here is an example of how to control a lighting system with brainwaves

OCZ technology released their NIA (Neural Impulse Actuator) last year as a game controller. It has three inputs and conveniently maps onto a QWERTY keyboard. Neural Sky, is responsible for the guts of the Force Trainer, developed a headset that has an open source SDK. Perhaps the most attractive option for the those with some programming experience, this is a one input, wireless unit that has headphones attached to unit.

Saavy readers will note, that these are not fully fledged “brainwave detectors.” These units for the most part measure some amount of “bio-potential” across the skin, but to tap into actual brainwave control it takes a little more. For these options, one has to shell out a considerable sum of money. A good example is IBVA, which comes MIDI-ready controller via their proprietary software.

The narly looking EPOC by Emotiv features a full 14 inputs and sneaky info shows that it has just started shipping for “developers”.

Open source options like open EEG require experience with chips, but give the option of using whatever sensor, enclosure and inputs etc. one wishes. It might still be a little hardcore new-agey, but just close your eyes, open your ears and use your head. You may be surprised by the results.

Resources:
Glovepie – scripting platform for controlling Photoshop with MIDI. If you are a GIMP user, MIDI support is native in the latest release and takes about 5 minutes to set-up.
Multicontrol – converts HID (the protocol that lets mice, keyboards, and flight control simulators control your computer) into MIDI, for MAC. M-Joy does the same for Windows.

The Chicago Urban Art Society (CUAS), Chicago’s emerging not-for-profit art organization, is proud to present Sweet Tooth: A Charity Bake Sale & Art Exhibition. Bringing together the local artistic community in this one-of-a-kind Charity Bake Sale & Art Exhibition to benefit The Chicago Urban Art Society (CUAS)* and Friends. A portion of the proceeds will be given to support the following organizations: The Chicago Public Art Group (CPAG), HIGH JUMP, The Chicago Art Department (CAD) and Urban Gateways. Above-mentioned organizations will have a representative present. CUAS and Friends have organized for one night in support of Chicago’s creative community to raise funds for like-minded organizational missions.

Chicago-based bakeries have donated over 1,000 pastries, chocolates, candies and other baked goods – Bleeding Heart Bakery, Swirlz Cupcakes and Whole Foods Market, Yum Universe, Brown Sugar Bakery, Tipsy Cake Chicago, Brown Sugar Bakery, Molly’s Cupcakes, The Cocoa Room. This event will be held in the Pilsen and is hosted by the Chicago Arts District. Music provided by deejay’s Trew and Genghiswon.

Art raffled donations ($5 per ticket) by Detour Studio, Ray CRO Noland, Jeff Zimmerman, Juan Angel Chavez, Hector Duarte, Sue Zola, Chris Silva, Maria Gaspar, Cody Hudson, James Jankowiak, Doug Fogelson, James Casper Jankowiak, Dzine and Mike Genovese. Candy themed art installation by Urban Gateways teaching artist James CASPER Jankowiak and art display by glitter artist Sue Zola.

Complimentary beverages by Indigo Wine Group. Pastry tickets for sale ($1 per ticket). $20 door donation includes complimentary alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages as well as one free sweet ticket for any item selection. Event is open to the public. All contributions are tax-deductible to the fullest extent under the law.

As a young, but highly accomplished and recognized artist and writer, as well as an alumnae and active member of The University of Chicago community, Emma Bee Bernstein developed a successful body of photographic works up until her death in December 2008. This exhibition of 30 photographs is accompanied by a slide presentation curated by Antonia Pocock and a catalogue with critical statements by Kate Bussard, Assistant Curator of Photography, The Art Institute of Chicago, Hamza, Walker, the Director of Education at The Renaissance Society, and Professor Matthew Jesse Jackson, of the Department of Art History and Visual Arts, University of Chicago. The exhibition will highlight the signature aspects of Bernstein’s work – the inflection of social, political and historical awareness that marks her projects and her interdisciplinary approach to photography, which combined fashion, documentary, (self)-portraiture, feminism, and a unique blend of dark humor mixed with heady optimism.

You might be familiar with Emma’s work in Girldrive: Criss-crossing America, Redefining Feminism, which she co-authored with Nona Willis Aronowitz, or from our production of ANGELUS NOVUS, which she photographed in October, 2008. Emma and I also collaborated on some publicity stills during that year, which were published variously online as promotion for my work as a performing artist. We also presented many of the photographs from her Masquerade and At Night collections alongside the work of Shanti Evans (with whom we made Wild Traits in Tame Species–it was Emma who first introduced us) at AUGUST GROTESQUE, an exhibition and masquerade held at our studio space in August, 2008.

A photo from ANGELUS NOVUS, which Emma exquisitely photographed for us in October, 2008.

Some photos Emma took of me in and outside her apartment in July, 2008.

Although we were in the same graduating class at the University of Chicago and frequently crossed social (her longterm ex-high school boyfriend was my longterm college boyfriend), curricular, and extracurricular paths (we were both awarded Metcalf Fellowships in summer 2006…she at the Art Institute and I at the MCA), we weren’t really friends so much as acquaintances until after graduation. I barely knew her, but I knew of her, and what I did know was that she was talented, ambitious, precocious, and lived a very glamorous and dangerous lifestyle. At 22, Emma practically oozed sex, drugs, and [punk] rock ‘n’ roll.

Emma in a self-portrait from her Masquerade series (2007).

And so it was with great fascination and caution that I pursued a the beginnings of what I had hoped would be a longer and more robust friendship than what became of those last few months leading up to her death in December, 2008. We met for beers, shot photos, talked about our futures, the Internet, Chicago… We made plans to curate exhibits together, to host events, to network, to “make it.” She told me that she and her best friend had a secret band that had been practicing for months; that she desperately wanted to perform in front of an audience, and could I help coax her out of her stage fright and into the limelight? I began to realize that she also had the same trepidations about her new and quickly developing career as I did mine. Trepidation which, up until that point, had seemed utterly unfathomable considering her breeding and brains. And so when she called me, in tears, to tell me she had gotten in a car accident, that she needed to see my mom (who is a neurologist), I sent her to the doctor and thought nothing of it. The trauma was more psychological than physical, and so I assumed she just needed some R&R and would be back to her usual self in no time.

What happened next, I can’t pretend to know. What I do know is that I wished I had paid more attention to my new friend and not been so quick to assume that she could take care of herself, that she need not be bothered by me and my decidedly more wholesome (read: boring) approach to life. Like, what was I going to do, bake cookies with her? Surely she had more important and exciting things to do (get tattoos, fly to Venice), and surely someone else would be the one to assure her emotional and physical health after the accident, which, in retrospect, must’ve made her very aware of her own mortality, maybe for the first time ever. But she knew practically everyone in Chicago, and she knew literally everyone in New York. Who was I to put my nose all up in her business, when we’d only just begun?

Emma in a self-portrait from her Masquerade series (2007).

Well. All I can say now is that I wished I had thought otherwise. I wished I’d had the gumption to ask if she was OK, if she was REALLY OK. I thought all the colorful tumult that surrounded her somehow contributed to her creativity: maybe it inspired her, maybe it energized her, maybe it wasn’t destructive nor distracting for someone who was used to experiencing that kind of thing every day, growing up in NYC. On the one hand, she was someone who never slept; on the other hand, she was from the city that never sleeps! She lived fast; she died young. She is survived by her work, and by the memories of those of us who were lucky enough to know her. All we can do now is look, but not touch. We are left with photos, with a representation of self, with the question of whether or not the representation is the self? This question was at the very center of her artistic investigations. It informs how and why I look at her photos, the puzzle she’s left us all to decipher, for she was so many different things to so many different people. This is the essence of what it meant to be Emma Bee Bernstein, at least for me. Look, but don’t touch.

According to a reputable source, Steampunk refers primarily to a genre of fantasy or science fiction that explores the ramifications of advanced technology on society or the possibilities, both technological or otherwise, of alternate worlds or “path-not-taken” narratives. But the bit that interests me comes almost as a footnote at the end: “Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual artisans into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical ‘steampunk’ style.”

My introduction to Steampunk came from a series of recurring posts on BoingBoing, a multifarious Directory of Wonderful Things. BoingBoing has tagged so many posts with the keyword “steampunk” that it would take hours to browse through it all. What initially caught my interest was this practice of re-purposing or re-imagining everyday objects through the lens of madhat technologists of the late 19th century. The two types of devices I’ve seen most often in Steampunk projects are musical instruments and computer peripherals.

Heckeshorn (Photo by Kirsten Groh)

Above you can see a picture of the Heckeshorn, the first device built by German musician Moritz Wolpert in 2008. It is comprised of an amplified string instrument that acts like an automated slide-banjo and a music-box that sounds like a kalimba, mounted on an engraved brass chassis.

The use of brass as a construction or decoration material signals the steampunk aesthetic in action. Though it is no longer used in the manufacture of modern technology, brass has an intrinsic aesthetic appeal that evokes an earthy solidity and sets it apart from a world of cheap plastics and flashy aluminum casing.

A Clockwork Guitar by Jake von Slatt

Wolpert’s machines, as well as the etched-brass pickguard on the guitar above, meet the primary criterion of Steampunk projects: detailed surface work that evokes the Victorian-era mechanist aesthetic. In the case of the guitar, however, the surface is the only plane of engagement between the maker and the object. The modification does not affect the function of the guitar or any parameter of that function–only its appearance. In fact, most Steampunk objects, especially those intended for mass consumption on alt-merchandise websites like Etsy, retain all aspects of their contemporary functionality.

Steampunk Flat-Panel LCD and Keyboard Mod by Jake von Slatt

The keyboard mod above provides a great illustration of what Steampunk should be about. Jake von Slatt replaced the familiar plastic square keys of modern keyboards with the heavy round brass keys found on early typewriters. The brass keys are unquestionably harder to use, so the mod represents a technological regression. How is it valuable, then, beyond looking cool?

Most computer users today have never used a brass typewriter other than as a novelty and probably don’t spend much time thinking about how the buttons on their Macbook came to look the way they do. So the inconvenience of a brass keyboard attached to a modern computer forces an encounter with the origins and history of a user interface we take for granted.

Steampunk makers like Moritz Wolpert and Jake von Slatt recognize what we gain from the shock of such an encounter. An awkward or inappropriate user interface calls attention to itself and defamiliarizes the user’s experience of a given object. With that defamiliarization comes a heightened awareness of how pervasively our technology dictates our daily routines and patterns of thought and perception.

This brings me to the device that inspired this article, seen in the photo below.

Schaltzentrale by Moritz Wolpert

The Schaltzentrale (“Central Switchboard”) is an analog modular synthesizer, complete with ring modulation, a step sequencer, and voltage control. It works alone or can be used to control the Heckeshorn and its various components. All of its brass surface controls were hand-built at a lathe, and the voltmeter on it dates back to 1901.

Large modular synths functionally similar to the Schaltzentrale were hot in the 1970s and earned an iconic status when they appeared on stage with groups like Pink Floyd and Emerson, Lake, & Palmer.

Keith Emerson playing a Moog modular synth (Photo by Mark Glinsky)

Since then they have been replaced by much more compact devices like the microKORG that emulate, with varying degrees of accuracy, the sounds produced by a modular synthesizer.

microKORG by KORG Corporation

In light of the fact that the microKORG makes the modular synth look like a cumbersome monstrosity, I think Wolpert’s decision to mod the synthesizer is extremely fitting: he altered an already anachronistic technology according to the aesthetics of a bygone technological era.

But the Schaltzentrale accomplishes more than just a retro make-over for the synthesizer. Through its incongruously decorative brass control surface, the Schaltzentrale calls the user’s attention both to the development of electronic music and to the history of technology manufacture in general. In this device we find a potential for intellectual engagement almost totally absent in the brass-packaged techno-trinkets I mentioned above.

Like the typewriter-keyboard mod and the Heckshorn, the Schaltzentrale is an example of Steampunk culture at its best: a celebration of technology as artwork and a salute to all that we might learn from technological backwardness. Above all, it’s a culture insisting that elegance and beauty in technology is more than a measure of how much will fit on an integrated circuit.

She only exists for me in a few low-fi videos on YouTube, but her dance stylings are so ferocious that she has propelled herself out of the two dimensional video world and landed among the mythic dance legends that are orbiting around us, constantly bringing the heat. Think Rosie Perez in the intro of Do The Right Thing mixed with Elizabeth Berkely in Showgirls. When people watch her videos, I think they react to the absurdity of the choreography combined with her unabashed full throttle execution of it. There is nothing timid about her hip action, nearly exploding out of her American Gladiator dance panties.

I’ve done some light research on Sara and there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot on the Internet concerning her place of origin or why she was on so many Italian variety shows. It also makes me wonder why we don’t have more ridiculous and high production value variety shows on television. Nevermind American Idol, I’m talking Telemundo-style crazy-show stuff to match the media circus that we already think is normal. We could handle it. Sara Carlson should come back and infuse American television audiences with the same sense of wonderment as she did while performing amongst talented crab-scuttling contortionists and virtuoso violinists for Europe in the 80′s.

All we need to know about Sara Carlson is what she has bestowed upon us: her Dance Legacy. Which will supply me with moves to bust out at parties, or alone in my apartment–which seems to be her new direction. It seems she’s recently taken a note from the Whirling Dervishes (mystical dancers who stand between the material and cosmic world, representing the earth’s revolution around the sun).

That’s a perfect way to describe her.

Over the summer, all of us at the NHQ became obsessed with Charo, née María Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Moquiere de les Esperades Santa Ana Romanguera y de la Najosa Rasten. “DANTHE… Jooth ay leetle beet klohther!” was on everybody’s lips, and all of our eyes on her glorious tits. Reading her Wikipedia article was a revelation in and of itself, but YouTubing her rarer appearances made her all the more alluring.

Not only was Charo NOT just the blonde bimbo of whom I had only the vaguest childhood recollections (Hollywood Squares), she was a musical prodigy whose career began when she was “discovered” by Xavier Cugat, that irresistible Spanish bandleader whose work was most recently re-popularized by Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar Wai in films such as 2046, In The Mood for Love, and Days of Being Wild. After watching the next video, you too will realize why we find the winner of the award for Cugat’s most vivacious fourth wife (she was just 15 when he married her at age 66) equally irresistible (she’s the first guest, so don’t skip ahead):

WOW now that’s some RAW TALENT! Ain’t no way around it. No true space cadet could ever have the mellifluous motor control and pure power of expression to which we sensual creatures are all beholden. Likewise take note of one of Colombian pop princess Shakira’s earlier appearances in American-made media.

Besides the obvious similarities of Spanish and the Sex Appeal, in these videos, both Shakira and Charo are also presented (are they presenting themselves?) in ways that highlight their talents as musicians: both women are wielding guitars (Charo throughout, Shakira mostly towards the end). The fact that both are singing in their native tongue is not to be overlooked; these songs were originally written in Spanish, and are therefore inevitably more poetic than what would later pass as popular music. For both women, this would mean singing English-language songs whose only merits are the unexpected level of amusement one derives from appreciating their absurd vapidity. See below:

Not only is the music less musical (I’d like to see someone try and argue Shakira’s coquettish wolf howl as superior to her robust natural singing voice), but their visual presentation is much more contrived and hyper-sexualized, and much less unique to the performers themselves. Charo was a classically trained Spanish guitarist and flamenco dancer, as evidenced by only her earliest televised appearances. You would never know, though, after seeing her jiggle and giggle her way through The Loveboat theme. Likewise, Shakira is a former musical prodigy and accomplished multi-instrumentalist, capable of expressing so much more than one might imagine after watching her writhe and thrust her way around a cage (a life-sized geode, a crowded club, etc.) with…

…on her lips. Also capable of processing complex intellectual activities, such as studying history at UCLA, or speaking at Oxford University about her work as an educator and philanthropist. But you might not notice, what with all that other stuff coming out of her mouth on the radio and in her videos. The same could be said of Charo.

However, it wouldn’t be fair to find fault with either of these women for merely riding the great [single] white [male] wave of convention (cowabunga, dude!) to stardom… Rather, we make and appreciate the distinction between the before and after, taking special care to celebrate what once was and is no longer. What once was María Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Moquiere de les Esperades Santa Ana Romanguera y de la Najosa Rasten is now just “Cuchi-Cuchi.” In the beginning, there was Shakira. In the end, there was Charo. What does it matter? It’s all the same to us if it’s all the same to them.

via MommyKamikaze

Deacon’s project has only been online for 48 hours, but has already managed to spark some serious controversy, both at Kickstarter and on other blogs and forums, such as Electrical Audio. Check out these excerpts from Deacon’s comments section on Kickstarter–ours included–and then head on over and see for yourself what the hubub’s all about:

P.J. CRAVEN: This is not even some starving artist using this site trying to make a record. This is a well-established act using its fame to, in essence, get anonymous people to finance a fun trip.

ANDRE WILLIAMS: Josh, don’t you think that $25,000 could be better spent helping the numerous problem situations in Africa than on entertainment? Also the other native acts probably can not even imagine $25k as overhead for travel and *experience* costs. While I support your wanting to participate in this festival from both a cultural and learning standpoint, this project seems excessive…especially when considering the other lesser known native acts who will be making nowhere near this amount. Seems a bit exploitative.

HUNTER KEIL ROBINSON: Most of the criticism of Josh’s project seems to rest on a knee-jerk reaction to the very fact that a member of a popular group is asking for financial assistance, rather than on well thought out arguments…The argument that the project is somehow immoral because this money would be better spent on charity is interesting, but not very compelling. This is an art project, not a humanitarian one…This project isn’t meant to better the world in any but an artistic and cultural sense. It is certainly not hurting anyone; the only people who give to the project will be people like myself: relatively wealthy individuals who love Animal Collective’s music enough to support this project and will treasure the unique art objects that will result from Josh’s trip.

NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS: We love Deacon and Animal Collective. (We do!) But what makes Kickstarter admirable is its ability to empower the underdog–the emerging and/or independent artist who needs help harnessing the collective power of the online community to popularize and produce projects of even the smallest scale. We think many artists will find this project audacious because it is an internationally celebrated act asking the public to fund the production of a VERY large-scale project that would nonetheless be produced regardless of whether or not it is successfully funded on Kickstarter… The show WILL go on even without our support. Meanwhile, AC will have effectively upstaged the rest of the community. And by featuring this project on its front page, Kickstarter is, in a way, jeopardizing the successful fundraising of those projects whose appeal might have otherwise grown in AC’s absence… This brings in to question why Kickstarter was founded in the first place, and for whom…?

Read more at Kickstarter…

DJs: Ross Kelly (Chicago Workgroup, Kokorokoko) and John Twatters (Chances Dances)
Hair and Make up by Strange Beauty Show.
$2 PBRS $3 Berlin Bombs 21+

10:30pm – 4:00am
Berlin Nightclub
954 W. Belmont
Chicago

Photo © Kimberly Capriotti