neuroknitting: scarves made from brainwave activity

neuroknitting: scarves made from brainwavesall images © mar canet

researching the possible uses of brain and body signals for multi-modal interaction, a collaboration between artists varvara guljajeva, mar canet and MTG researcher sebastian mealla, introduces ‘neuroknitting’, a collection of scarves made with ‘knitic’, an open hardware knitting machine that translates brainwaves into physical garments. using a wearable, non-invasive EEG headset, the system records a users’ effective brain state while listening to music – specifically when hearing bach’s ‘goldberg variations’. after down-sampling 10 minutes of data into special software, the knitting machine measures signals from relaxation, excitement, and cognitive load responses, converting the wave-lengths into a unique pattern.

the project uses digital framework to create bicolored knitting patterns

‘neuroknitting’video courtesy varvara

the collection of scarves are made with an open hardware knitting machine that translates brainwaves into physical garments

‘neuroknitting’ researches the possible uses of brain and body signals for multi-modal interaction

using a wearable, non-invasive EEG headset, the system records a users’ effective brain state while listening to music

the machine measures signals from relaxation, excitement, and cognitive load responses, converting the wave-lengths into unique scarves