The Phage

Dr. Brainlove is a 30 ft geodesic brain-shaped art car that first debuted at Burning Man in 2014. The project aimed to create an immersive experience by integrating an EEG interface via a Cognionics 16-channel dry EEG headset, which drives 2000 LEDs based on the spatialized neural activity of participants. This innovative approach allowed festival-goers to see their brain activity represented through vibrant LED displays, enhancing their connection to the art piece and each other.

As the project evolved, we quickly realized the need for more LEDs to create a more impactful visual experience. In 2015, we redesigned the lighting system to accommodate 20,000 individually addressable LEDs, allowing for more intricate and responsive light patterns that reflected the participants' mental states. Part of the design goals was to make the LEDs climbable, which led to some challenging requirements for the LEDs, diffusion, power and data distribution, and connectors.

The art car was built on an old school bus base, designed to resemble a skull and spine, creating a striking visual presence on the playa. Collaborating with three other LED artists, we focused on the software design to drive the LEDs using LX (now known as Chromatik, developed by Mark Slee). My role involved overseeing power and data distribution across the irregular geodesic structure, which presented unique challenges in ensuring reliable connectivity and power supply.

To address these challenges, we implemented creative solutions for distributing 5VDC power and sensitive data over long distances with multiple branching points. We utilized a BeagleBone on a custom RGB123 distribution board, sending data over RS-485 to remote controllers that accurately localized the LED strips, ensuring a seamless and engaging experience for participants.

Together with Alex-Maki Jokela, Alex Scouras, the legendary Sean Stevens (Momentum ∞), and LED hardware guru Shlomo Zippel (chroma.tech), we created a control system that would drive the unusual graph pattern of the lighting bars along the brain, dubbed DBLX. This leveraged a combination of LEDscape for the hardware layer, LX for the pattern control and VJ abilities, and custom adapter in Processing3 to read the EEG sensor data streams from an Interaxon Muse EEG headset.

Throughout the project, we faced numerous technical challenges, particularly in ensuring the reliability of the LED bars and the connections bridging the steel structural hubs. However, through teamwork and perseverance, we successfully created a captivating experience that resonated with Burners.

• Collaborated with a team of LED artists to design and implement the lighting system

• Developed software to control LED patterns based on real-time EEG data

• Managed power distribution and data integrity across the geodesic structure

• Real-time refinement of the deployment as inevitable dust-covered challenges arose