Birth of Creation

Concept

The Birth of Creation is a unique concert/performance that ties together neuroscience, music, technology and visual art.

It is a conceptual journey inspired by research on spontaneous creativity, improvisation, and synchronization between creators.

The Setup

The performance showcases two pianists, Orazio Sciortino and Richard Rentsch who sit facing one another in front of two interlaced grand pianos. We begin by collecting a short series of notes from the audience, at random. These notes are used as a starting point to create a spontaneous, improvised composition. While the pianists play, neuroscientist-musician Dr. Nathaniel Evans records various neurophysiological signals from the musicians, including electrical brain activity, heart activity, respiration, and head movements. In collaboration with the BigMap visual collective, these signals are transformed into visuals and are projected above the pianists for the audience to see. The visuals highlight moments of fusion and synchrony between the brains of the two pianists.

Philosophy

This mixed-media performance piece extends the metaphor that the creation is born in an enigmatic void. Our moment-by-moment actions are guided by our past experiences, our present environment, our social interactions, and our mysterious ability to surprise ourselves by reformulating these elements. Our lives, our compositions, are constantly unfolding via creation. Interacting with others leads us to unpredictable outcomes that could have not existed in the individual, rather, only by synchronized collaboration.

This fully improvised composition, combined with a conceptual, visual representation of the internal physiological states of the pianists makes a poignant and intriguing artistic statement as well as a captivating, un-repeatable experience for audiences.