[Expressive Text]

The Brain Opera Performance

culminating
the entire
experience

[Animated Text]


The culmination of the Brain Opera experience is the 45-minute Final Performance. Here, a 3-movement composition ties together the project's many musical, visual, and textual strands into a unified tapestry. Three performers shape, select, and interpret precomposed and audience-created elements, using specially-designed hyperinstruments: the Sensor Chair (which translates wireless body movement into sound); the Gesture Wall (a modification of the same instrument from the Mind Forest); and the Digital Baton (which combines pointing, squeezing/selecting, and motion sensing). A large curved screen and multiple projectors allows a constant flow of images to be presented in coordination with the music, illustrating Minsky's words, providing counterpoint to the music, or illuminating the actions of the performers. The audience is also invited to dance on a Sensor Carpet during the Finale, adding sound to the richness and intensity at the end of the work.

Participate in the Brain Opera Performances:


From July 23 to August 3, 1996, you will be able to interact and perform directly with the Brain Opera! During all of the Lincoln Center performances (held between 1pm and 9pm, EST), you can access this site, and, if you are Java-enabled, play our Web instrument. Your data from the Web instrument will be sent to our Green Room servers at Lincoln Center, where it will be processed and performed to the live audience.

Our final Web instrument is still under development, and will become active at our premiere...in the meantime, we are providing an earlier version of it below. Use it to practice and get proficient ahead of time:

The Palette


Read the Brain Opera Program Notes:


You can access the program notes, below, for each of the three sections of the Brain Opera, written for our Lincoln Center "Playbill" by Tod Machover. It is divided up into three sections, corresponding to the three movements of the piece. The text describes the musical styles and structures in the performance, including corresponding audio examples for you to download and listen to.

  • Movement 1
  • Movement 2
  • Movement 3


    • View the Architecture and Design of the Performance Space:


  • See the architectural plan for the Performance Space at Lincoln Center.
  • See an architectural sketch of what the audience's perspective will be
    at the Lincoln Center performances.
  • See the Performace Space plan.
  • See an earlier artistic design for the Performance Space.

    • Return to the Rest of the Brain Opera Web Site:



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