Creating Interactive Multimedia Works with Bio-data

This paper deals with the usage of bio-data from performers to create interactive multimedia performances or installations. It presents this type of research in some art works produced in the last fifty years (such as Lucier’s Music for a Solo Performance, from 1965), including two interactive performances of my authorship, which use two different types of bio-interfaces: on the one hand, an EMG (Electromyography) and on the other hand, an EEG (electroencephalography). The paper explores the interaction between the human body and real-time media (audio and visual) by the usage of bio-interfaces. This research is based on biofeedback investigations pursued by the psychologist Neal E. Miller in the 1960s, mainly based on finding new methods to reduce stress. However, this article explains and shows examples in which biofeedback research is used for artistic purposes only.