Thought Conductor #1: November 28-30, 1997, The Place Theatre, London. Presented as part of "Winter Music" by Bruce Gilchrist, Jonny Bradley, Jo Joelson. Performed by Nikki Yeoh & Piano Circus.
An invitation from the Winter Music Festival provided an opportunity to devise a performance relating to the idea of creating a musical score on stage directly from thought processes. The composer, Nikki Yeoh had been commissioned by the piano sextet, Piano Circus to compose a new piece for the festival that she titled, "six-as-one". When approached, she consented to a Thought Conductor collaboration. Software was written that would translate the composer's real-time brainwaves into musical notation based on mathematical rules agreed between the programmer and the composer. Prior to the premiere of the authentic "six-as-one", the composer was connected to a digital biomonitor on stage and asked to think through her score, adhering as much as possible to the structure of the piece. Her real-time brainwaves, as a consequence of this act, were translated into musical notation for six parts and sent to six computer monitors, each one mounted on a Steinway grand piano. The six members of Piano Circus sight read the scrolling notation and played it live on stage. Digital light curtains were programmed to respond to the live brainwave.
