Other Minds is an electronic concert piece in which one of the performers is outfitted with bio-sensors (EEG, EMG and Oximetric Heart monitor) the outputs of which are used as control signals for a modular synthesizer.
These bio-signals reflect the performer's neurological and physiological responses to two types of aural stimuli, which are also audible to the audience: Anti-Racist spoken word poetry, and readings of Anti-Asian hate speech from social media.
The musical texture is a real-time sonificaation of these signals, which are amplified to eurorack voltage levels (@ -10V to 10V). Please see the Patch Diagram below for an illustration of the routings used..
Other Minds is the second of 3 pieces commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts for the performance program "American Dreams/Asian Nightmares," which premiered on October 27th 2022, at the USC Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, CA.
NEA Composer of Record: Micah Huang.
Other Minds was created by Micah Huang, and performed by Micah Huang (Electronics) and Hao Huang (Bio-SIgnal Source)
Other Minds
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to watch the full video (Youtube)
TRIGGER WARNING: This is video contains shocking Anti-Asian language. A gentler version, intended for students, can be found at the bottom of this page
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Patch Diagram/
Audio Libretto
This patch diagram illustrates the signal chain for Other Bodies. The blue box at bottom contains a legend for the notations, which are an adaptation of the system created by Kim Bjorn and Chris Meyer in their 2020 Modular Synthesis Manual Patch and Tweak. The pink box at right contains the script for the spoken-word vocal used in the “soft” version of the piece. The “Hard” version of the piece uses a more extensive, far more explicit selection of Anti-Asian tweets which were published as part of the 2021 study “Racism is a Virus: Anti-Asian Hate and Counterspeech in Social Media during the COVID-19 Crisis” by Bing He et al. (Georgia Tech)
The EEG signal is captured via a Neurosky MindWave 2 headset, and transmitted via bluetooth to a SoundMachines B1 BraInterface eurorack module, which performs the bandpass filtering and envelope following functions illustrated in the leftmost portion of the diagram.
The bank of sine oscillators to which the EEG band amplitude signals are mapped is contained within a Verbos Electronics Harmonic Oscillator, whose fundamental pitch is tuned to 74Hz.
The EMG signal is captured from the left masseter muscle via an ADDAC303 Muscle Sensing Eurorack Module, which utilizes a MyoWare muscle sensor and houses calibration, scaling and comparator functions.
The Oximetric Heart monitor is housed in an ADDAC307 Heart Sensing Eurorack Module.
Voltage scaling and sound source levels are manipulated manually in real time.
Click on the image below to enlarge to original dimensions (11" X 17")Scroll Down for Additional Video Materials
Full version of excerpt above. Run time @ 10min
Soft version, with extended spoken-word finale. Run time@ 8min