Everyone has longed for telekinetic powers at some point, whether it’s the ability to manipulate and control the natural elements, or simply one of those moments when you’re feeling too lazy to get up and turn the TV on. Artist Marcus Lyall has created installation that allows you to experience what it might be like to be telekinetic. As part of MERGE Bankside, whose theme this year is ‘Interaction and Participation’, the director and visual designer is showcasing his latest project, On Your Wavelength – an A/V show you control with your mind!
Lyall, who has worked on a range of some of the world’s most eminent musicians, including Metallica, Bon Jovi, Lily Allen and The Chemical Brothers, created the interactive exhibition in collaboration with adaptive music and sound designer Rob Thomas. Participants are given an EEG headset to wear, which monitors the activity in their brain. The data collected by the device is then fed through specialised computer software which then sends signals to the audio-visual systems creating. What ensues is a laser and sound display tailored to your brain’s own electronics, that creates your own exclusive ‘brain signature’.
The aim of On Your Wavelength is to disclose the mind as a tangible structure whose effects can be perceived through changes to the material world. Speaking about the project, Lyall said, “With the theme of this year’s MERGE festival being ‘Interaction and Participation’, I wanted to make something where a thought in your head causes an actual reaction in the physical world. There’s something magical about seeing a huge space being transformed in front of you, just through your thoughts. The more focus you can achieve, the further you move through the composition. By the end of the experience, you will come out with a different mind-state to when you walked in.”
The event is free and takes place on Bankside, London, from September 18 – October 18.
