Together with my brother I run a little experiment called Hoofdbeelden. It’s a exploration for both of us as an artist and how we can use data generated by me as a person can be used for audio/visual performances. We’ve had a few gigs so far, but our last at Fiber Festival certainly made sure for the both of us that this is something we want to do.

In short Hoofdbeelden is a system which allows us tap into devices hooked onto my body for real-time information. I wrote a little piece of software which reads all different kinds of devices and outputs OSC (Open Sound Control) messages so my brother can use those for visuals.

For now our visuals are done in Touch Designer, which limits us to windows. And we’re also trying to hook up more data-streams. But the Zeo proved to be the most useful so far. John Amschler did the upgrade for me and kindly handed me his cable. With a bit of trouble I was able to read the raw data of a COM port on windows, and within 10 minutes I could push all data straight trough a OSC-channel. Which not only meant useful data back to my brother, but realtime bio-feedback on my iPad trough TouchOSC as well! Five sliders or knobs based on brainwave frequencies!

A quick gist to get the basics going:

Now, onto the heart-rate and other biorhythms!