3-A Gallery, CICA Museum
June 25 – 29, 2025
2025.6.25 – 29
13×17
Using brain-computer interface technology and generative algorithms, 13X17 creates a living dialog between human consciousness and digital composition. At its core, the installation uses brainwave entrainment – the brain’s natural synchronization with external light pulse rhythms – to generate an evolving audiovisual environment. The project grew out of the extraordinary convergence of two periodic cicada broods in Nashville in 2024, where insects from 13- and 17-year cycles emerged simultaneously. This rare phenomenon, in which the creatures spend years in darkness before their brief moment in the light, serves as both inspiration and metaphor for the work’s exploration of cyclical patterns and fleeting experiences. The installation unfolds in two stages. It begins with a live performance in which the artist’s neural activity, captured by an EEG headset, interacts with generative algorithms to create real-time compositions of sound and light. This initial performance then seeds an ongoing installation in which the collected neural data continues to influence a constantly evolving multimedia environment. The resulting composition weaves together fragments of Nashville’s sensory landscape: the sonorous serenade of cicadas, sunlight filtered through dense foliage, resonant church bells, passing trains, and meditative labyrinth walks. These elements are transformed through the lens of brainwave data and algorithmic processing, creating an immersive space where technology, nature, and human consciousness converge in an ongoing dialogue.
Haein Kang is a new media artist exploring the unknown. Born and raised in South Korea, Dr. Kang began her artistic journey in painting and expanded into new media art influenced by Bay Area conceptual art. She began her career by winning the San Francisco Art Commission’s Construct competition in 2002 and the SOMA Drawing Center’s Into Drawing competition in 2009. Her work explores artistic innovation in a data-driven age. These endeavors have received international recognition, including an Honorary Mention at the 2019 Prix Ars Electronica. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 2021 for her research on the artistic application of brain-computer interfaces. Dr. Kang is an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University and lives and works in Nashville, Seattle, and Seoul.
