- Playing
- Brain Painting and Music of the Mind
- From
- With Good Reason
“Brainwave Chick” Paras Kaul taps into the natural melodies of her mind, converts them to digital sound, and makes brain music. Also: Dennis Proffitt is developing technology that allows the brain to express itself artistically without using any muscles. He hopes to provide an artistic outlet for fully paralyzed or “locked-in” individuals in society through “brain painting.”
More from With Good Reason
The legacy of Harry Crews
(00:02:26)
From: With Good Reason
Southern Gothic writer Harry Crews died in March of this year. Although many people have never heard of him, Crews’ stories about outcasts inspired an enormous cult ...
Butterfly in the Typewriter
(00:29:00)
From: With Good Reason
The stories behind two giants of Southern Gothic literature.
Saint Death
(00:02:28)
From: With Good Reason
For the past ten years, drug cartels in Mexico have been worshiping a sort of grim repress, a robed skeleton lady known as Santa Muerte, or Saint Death. Now, her popularity ...
The Rise of Santa Muerte
(00:29:00)
From: With Good Reason
Over the past decade, Mexican drug traffickers trying to get their products to the U.S. have had a spiritual “protector.” Her name is Santa Muerte—the Mexican folk saint of ...
Dead Zones
(00:02:39)
From: With Good Reason
A renowned marine biologist is studying a silent killer in oceans and bays. Allison Quantz has the story.
Dead Zones and Fly-Fishing
(00:28:59)
From: With Good Reason
You can’t see them on the surface. But at the bottom of some of the world’s largest bodies of water are areas called dead zones where fish and other life can’t survive.
Young Women Leaders Program
(00:02:25)
From: With Good Reason
Middle school girls have a lot to deal with. One psychologist says that a way to help them is by pairing the preteen girls with college-aged mentors. Allison Quantz reports.
Women and Leadership
(00:28:58)
From: With Good Reason
From preteen girls to college women to female faculty at the highest ranks of academia—a show about how women are learning to become leaders through supporting each other.
The Faiths of the Postwar Presidents
(00:29:00)
From: With Good Reason
A look at the religious lives of the twelve U.S. presidents who have served since the end of World War Two.
A New Western
(00:02:32)
From: With Good Reason
A playwright’s new web-Western is part of television’s jump to the internet. Allison Quantz has details.
Related Pieces
Piece Description
“Brainwave Chick” Paras Kaul taps into the natural melodies of her mind, converts them to digital sound, and makes brain music. Also: Dennis Proffitt is developing technology that allows the brain to express itself artistically without using any muscles. He hopes to provide an artistic outlet for fully paralyzed or “locked-in” individuals in society through “brain painting.”
Broadcast History
Aired March 28 - April 3, 2009 on ten public radio stations in Virginia.
Timing and Cues
00:00 – 01:02 SHOW INTRO
IC: (music bed) Host: The music we’re hearing comes directly from the brain. Or more specifically, brain waves. We have four mental states, alpha, beta, delta, and theta. This artist who calls herself the brainwave chick can change mental states at will. She scans her own brainwaves and plays them back through a synthesizer to create the music. I’m Sarah McConnell, and this is With Good Reason.
Later on today’s show, scientists are finding new ways to allow people with locked-in syndrome to communicate with the outside world.
Proffit: “Now we have a means for allowing somebody who can’t move anything – they can’t move their eyes, they can’t blink - but are otherwise completely aware and have no way of communicating, and this gives them one.
01:03 – 12:50 Interview Segment 1
Host: But first, Paras Kaul creates music by attaching a brainwave scanner to a computer, which synthesizes the raw data into music. Kaul, who is director of web communications at George Mason University, has performed at venues like The Millenium Stage and Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. And while she enjoys creating art from her brain, she also thinks we’d all benefit if we learned to control our brainwaves.
OC: Paras Kaul is the Director of Web Communications and an adjunct professor at George Mason University. Coming up next, finding new ways to let paralyzed patients paint, talk, or make music, using only their brains.
12:51 – 27:58 Interview Segment 2
The 2008 movie “The Diving Bell and The Butterfly” told the true story of French magazine editor Jean Bauby, who in 1996 suffered a stroke which left him “locked in”. He could see and hear, think and reason, but could only move his left eye. In this scene, he spells out the French world for “Thank You” to his speech therapist, by blinking as she reads a series of letters.
[clip: The Diving Bell and The Butterfly]
Our next guest is trying to make it easier for people with locked in syndrome to communicate, or to make art, or music. Dennis Proffitt has found ways for patients who can’t move anything, not even blink an eye, to communicate using their brainwaves. He’s a professor of psychology at The University of Virginia, and he worked closely with Computer Scientist Randy Pausch, , the author of the Last Lecture, who died last year of cancer.
OC: Dennis Profitt is a professor of psychology at The University of Virginia.
27:59 – 29:00 PRODUCTION/FUNDING CREDITS/CLOSING MUSIC
***********************************************************************
Contact: Producer, Sarah McConnell (434) 243-5521, withgoodreason@virginia.edu
Related Website
Of 3 purchasers of this piece...
- 2 also bought:
Life Stories - Jobs: Women at Work (00:59:07) - 2 also bought:
Thanksgiving story (00:05:51) - 2 also bought:
The Penguin Goes A Courtin' (00:03:55) - 2 also bought:
The Orphan Train (00:52:59) - 2 also bought:
What's the Word? W. E. B. Du Bois (00:29:10)
