Strange Loops : Augmenting Feelings

Ninon Lizé Masclef

Dassault Systèmes
Velizy-Villacoublay, France
lizeninon@gmail.com

Figure 1: The artwork Strange Loops

ABSTRACT
Strange Loops is a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) that turns emo-
tional states into colourful lights. Inspired by electric fields from the
brain amplified by EEG, the mask reveals and augments the feelings
of the wearer. By externalising the inner world, it creates a language
of the imperceptible. In this respect, it investigates how wearable
technology can create new forms of nonverbal communication, and
make the emotional self tangible, as a dynamic Gestalt.
CCS CONCEPTS
• Applied computing → Performing arts; • Hardware → Neu-
ral systems.
Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or
classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed
for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation
on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored.
For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s).
TEI ’23, February 26-March 1, 2023, Warsaw, Poland
© 2023 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).
ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-9977-7/23/02.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3569009.3576190
KEYWORDS
wearable, brain-computer interface, affective computing, data phys-
icalization
ACM Reference Format:
Ninon Lizé Masclef. 2023. Strange Loops : Augmenting Feelings. In TEI ’23:
Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Tangible, Embed-
ded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ’23), February 26-March 1, 2023, Warsaw,
Poland. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 3 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3569009.
3576190
1 INTRODUCTION
Strange Loops blends neurofeedback, data visualisation and affective
computing as means of expression through artistic performance.
The aesthetics of the mask is aimed at drawing a poetic analogy
between the amplifying circuit of the EEG and the wearable that
amplifies brain activity by materialising it with lights, as if we could
visualise electric fields emanating from the scalp. This artwork was
built in the lineage of research works on emotive wearables, a subset
of Affective Computing that intends to analyse and visualise physi-
ological data in relation with its non-verbal communication such
TEI ’23, February 26-March 1, 2023, Warsaw, Poland
as mood states [1]. It takes inspiration from the body-centric de-
sign research of the Austrian collective Haus-Rucker-Co with their
prosthetic wearable Flyhead (1968) that was aimed at expanding
the internal world and creating new modes of interaction between
selves and their environment.
2 PALPABILITY OF THE INVISIBLE
By amplifying the wearer’s EEG data into a visual form beyond
the flat screen, this artwork can be seen as a data physicalization,
i.e. “a physical artifact whose geometry or material properties en-
code data” [5]. It explores physical data representation as means to
communicate meaning and relate to data in new ways, in the same
fashion as data sculptures [3]. To that extent, it is aimed at engaging
with the “palpability of the invisible” [7], where the invisible is the
inner emotional self.
The title Strange Loops refers to the book I am a strange loop (2007)
[4] from the cognitive scientist Douglas Hoftstadter, who defines
the self as a strange loop, an epiphenomenon which emerges from
a self-refering system. A metaphor D. Hoftstadter uses to depict
the self is a video feedback, when a camera is pointed at its own
playback video monitor. The self became visible with the optical
metaphor, in a feedback process. In this artwork, I am precisely
trying to create a feedback loop by showing the mind itself, and
highlight emotional states that structure the topology of the self
[8].
3 SYSTEM DESIGN
Built upon Neurosky’s ThinkGear ASIC Module (TGAM), Ag/AgCl
dry electrodes, optic fibers, addressable LED strips and Selective
Laser Sintering (SLS) 3D printing, this project demonstrates how
to embed an EEG sensor in a wearable meaningful in an artistic
context. The mask was conceived from a 3D scan of the performer
with CATIA XGenerative Design software using a parametric de-
sign approach. The code to parse EEG data packets and update the
lights in the wearable was written in the C programming language.
The TGAM processes EEG signals with its proprietary algorithm
eSense, that filters out extraneous noise and electrical interference.
It sends eSense meters (attention and meditation) as well as Power
Spectrum Density (PSD) using 512 Hz sampling frequency. The
data packets are transmitted to the Arduino via Serial communica-
tion on pins TX/RX. The signal quality indicator is used to decide
whether to update the display. Afterwards, peaks of bandpowers are
computed, as well as attention and meditation value peaks. As the
use of a single channel EEG is not suitable for an highly accurate
emotion detection in the 2D space of valence-arousal, only relaxed
and focus moods are considered as affective states for this project.
Nevertheless, the correlation between emotional states and power
spectral densities (PSDs) has been extensively demonstrated [2],
which suggests the display of frequency band peaks is a meaningful
indicator of emotional activity.
The optic fibers change colours in accordance with the power
spectrum peaks. The mapping is akin to the theory of color of
Kandinsky (1912) [6] that defines a grammar associating moods
and colours. Besides, an animation of the lights is triggered such
as blinking or waving once a threshold is reached in attention and
meditation, respectively.
Ninon Lizé Masclef
Figure 2: Performer wearing Strange Loops
4 PERFORMANCE
For TEI Art Tracks venue, I propose to present Strange Loops as
an audiovisual performance, in the lineage of previous biofeed-
back performances such as Alvin Lucier’s Music For Solo Performer
(1965) and Alex Hay’s Grass Fields (1966). Besides the optic fiber
animations in the mask, ambient electronic music generated from
brainwaves with Max/MSP will augment and materialize feelings
of the performer.
5 CONCLUSION
Leveraging the potential of Tangible, Embodied Interaction (TEI)
to embrace the vision of the hyper-sensory self, Strange Loops is
an attempt to include a deeper integration of our inner sensory
experiences. To that extent, it blurs the boundaries between the
inner and outer world, invisible and visible. Through experiential
performance, this artwork makes room for an understanding of
the mind as a dynamic entity tangibly lived. Finally, Strange Loops
employs BCI as means to create new forms of self expression as
well as hybridization between art and science.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The project was created as a final project for the program Fabri-
cademy, Textile and Technology Academy, in collaboration with the
fablabs Digiscope | LISN | Université Paris-Saclay and Dassault Sys-
tèmes’ 3DExperience Lab. It was exhibited at Maker Faire Sardinia
and 3DExperience Munich in 2022.
REFERENCES
[1] Rain Ashford. 2014. Responsive and emotive wearables: devices, bodies, data
and communication. In Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Symposium on
Wearable Computers Adjunct Program - ISWC ’14 Adjunct. ACM Press, Seattle,
Washington, 99–104. https://doi.org/10.1145/2641248.2642731
[2] Richard J. Davidson. 2003. Affective neuroscience and psychophysiology: Toward
a synthesis. Psychophysiology 40, 5 (Sept. 2003), 655–665. https://doi.org/10.1111/
1469-8986.00067
[3] Pierre Dragicevic and Yvonne Jansen. 2012. List of Physical Visualizations and
Related Artifacts. http://dataphys.org/list/
[4] Douglas R. Hofstadter. 2007. I am a strange loop. Basic Books, New York. OCLC:
ocm64554976.
[5] Yvonne Jansen, Pierre Dragicevic, Petra Isenberg, Jason Alexander, Abhijit Karnik,
Johan Kildal, Sriram Subramanian, and Kasper Hornbæk. 2015. Opportunities
and Challenges for Data Physicalization. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, Seoul Republic of Korea,
3227–3236. https://doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702180
Strange Loops : Augmenting Feelings
[6] Wassily Kandinsky, Jelena Hahl-Fontaine, and Max Bill. 2017. Über das Geistige in
der Kunst: insbesondere in der Malerei: mit acht Tafeln und zehn Originalholzschnit-
ten (5. auflage der 2004 revidierten neuauflage ed.). Benteli, ein Imprint der Braun
Publishing AG, Salenstein.
[7] Thecla Schiphorst. 2007. Really, really small: the palpability of the invisible. In
Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCHI conference on Creativity & cognition - C&C ’07.
TEI ’23, February 26-March 1, 2023, Warsaw, Poland
ACM Press, Washington, DC, USA, 7–16. https://doi.org/10.1145/1254960.1254962
[8] Gilbert Simondon and Taylor Adkins. 2020. Individuation in light of notions of
form and information. Number 57 in Posthumanities. University of Minnesota
Press, Minneapolis.