Presented by UBS Bank and Cynthia Reeves Gallery
Vitruvian Person draws on EEG technology to reveal the intangible mind-body matrix–the profound, unseen beauty unique to each human being.
The ephemeral mind-body connection is made evident through Stubblefield’s transformation of brain wave data through EEG and AI technologies, transforming the notion of “portrait”.
The resulting visual combines the subject’s image artfully interwoven with their mind activity: their EEG data made visible.
Alongside visual output, Stubblefield works with Grammy Award-winning musicians to produce soundscapes elicited from the individual’s brain activity.
This work premiered as several works in the Vitruvian Person series originally explored during the Venice Biennale and shown at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York.
A collaboration with Michael Murphy, TOWARDS tells the story of individuals moving toward each other and their vision of a world they want to inhabit. The installation curates an immersive experience using video, light, music, and place.
The project captures videos of people from across the country who are working to help create a world where everyone thrives. From neighborhood impact to national influence, these individuals work every day to make a difference in their communities and country.
The work features site-specific, multi-genre music and interweaves the voices of these everyday people into a composition of instrumentation and spoken word. Residents of Chicago form the basis of the installation, with additional filming in communities from New York, NY to New Orleans, LA from Bears Ears, UT to Detroit, MI to Phoenix, AZ.
TOWARDS is supported by The Hearthland Foundation (hearthlandfoundation.org), and part of Next Stop Chicago.
For more information and a full list of contributors, visit www.walktowards.org.
Thanks to Ethan Rainbolt, generative video design.
Video by Rielly Donovan
Data music by Samuel Stubblefield made using electroencephalogram data from the artist.
Special thanks:
G.Tec Neurotechnology GmbH. and the Unicorn Black team
Jahanara Nares, brain science research assistance
Lighting that responds to real-time data from custom wind sensors placed on the coast of the Red Sea
Samuel Stubblefield
“Solar Things to Think About”
Real-time visualization of solar activity
Special thanks to Ethan Rainbolt, Technical Lead
Thanks to NOAA, and NASA for real-time data
Sound and light performance in a 100-year-old cistern.
Special thanks to Michael Murphy, MASS Design Group, Yasmine Kiss of The New York Meroplotain Opera, Greer Grimsley, Emma Grimsley, J.PERIOD, and Sarah Overton.
Select photos by Sean Hemmerle and Chris Roque.
Technical Lead and Lighting Design: Ethan Rainbolt
Samuel Stubblefield for UBS Bank Art Basel Miami 2023
Electroencephalogram, projection, Hologauze, speakers, custom software
VITRUVIAN PERSON explores brainwaves as a medium, using artificial intelligence and an electroencephalogram (EEG) to visualize and sonify the neurological activity of the artist’s subjects.
In this work the artist photographs and films individuals as they wear an EEG. The subject’s brainwaves are recorded as they are photographed and filmed, giving the artist unique brainwave data to be used for generative works in print, video, sculpture, and NFT presentations.
Additionally, in a genre of music known as “data music”, Stubblefield works with Grammy Award-winning performers to produce music from the individual’s brainwaves. Each song is as unique as each mind. Individual sonic expressions can be combined to become harmonious compositions that can involve dozens of individuals.
This body of work has been created with a promise of carbon offset purchases to the equivalent of 200% of carbon emissions produced in the process of creating the work.
New York Times Exhibition Review
Special thanks to:
The many people that were photographed for this project
Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Dianne Berkun-Menaker, Director
The Unicorn Black team and G.Tec Neurotechnology GmbH.
MASS Design Group for the invitation to share work alongside their brilliance
Technical Lead: Ethan Alexander Rainbolt
Director of Photography: Maurice Morales
Lead Gaffer: Jordan Platz
Commissioned by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
2 E 91st St, New York, NY 10128
We Are In Light is is real-time visualization and sonification of magnetospheric activity in an 11-acre forest.
Using real-time data from NASA and NOAA, the installation creates light and sound based on magnetospheric activity that happens around the Earth. As solar flares well up 92 million miles from Earth, they cast an invisible wash of plasmic energy across the solar system. We can only see this energy occasionally as it collides with atoms and molecules in our atmosphere. It is an awe-inspiring connection to our sun, the solar system, the universe, and the vastness of space.
Special thanks to Ethan Rainbolt, Creative Direction and Technical Lead.
Thanks to the many live musicians who played along with this installation.
Thanks to NASA and NOAA for access to space weather data.
On display at Cynthia-Reeves Gallery at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and the Ritz Carlton Residencies in Miami during Art Basel Miami, courtesy of UBS Bank.
Internally-illuminated images direct-printed to translucent fabric held within aluminium frames, How to See the Moon is a collection of large-format works focused on our rapidly changing relationship with the moon.
Special thanks to archivists at NASA for image assistance.
Image ©2020 Samuel Stubblefield, LLC
2019 Venice Biennale
Exhibited at The European Cultural Centre - Venice, Italy
European Cultural Centre (Strada Nova, 3659, 30121 Venezia, Italy)
Uzbekistan 2.0
Digital displays, biometric wristbands, custom software, PC
This work uses the artist’s realtime biometrics in a generative data visualization.
Images ©2020 Samuel Stubblefield, LLC
Aluminum, microcomputer, transducers
A series of sculptures that, when plugged in, emit the last-known audio recordings of now extinct birds.
Studio exploration using brainwaves from an electroencephalogram (EEG) to manipulate an image of a painting by the artist.
Technical Assistant: Ethan Rainbolt
Work-In-Progress: European Cultural Centre - Venice, Italy
European Cultural Centre (Strada Nova, 3659, 30121 Venezia, Italy)
OCEAN DATA 1.4
With early iterations being shown at the European Cultural Centre during the Venice Biennale and Art Basel Miami, this work continues to evolve the artist’s explorations of expressing nature using technology.
In a genre that the artist calls Data Music, the composition played at the entrance of the exhibition uses thousands of notes made by dozens of vocalists and instrumentalists. The immense collection of sounds are orchestrated and triggered by real-time data from nature.
In OCEAN DATA 1.4, the piece uses data -wind speed, wind direction, wave heights, water temperature, and air temperature- from internet-connected buoys off the surrounding coast. As the buoys send data to the computer on display, music starts to play. As the ocean churns, the music evolves to express the movement of the ocean around the gallery.
Simultaneously, the ocean data is used to control lighting at the entrance of the exhibition, making for a multi-sensory atmosphere.
The music features vocalists from The New York Metropolitan Opera, The Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and the artist himself. Instrumental clips were gathered from multiple Grammy Award-winning artists and many undiscovered artists from around the world.
The music can only be heard on location at the gallery or in the artist’s studio.
La Différence est une Cape (Nuit Blanche, Paris)
100 hand-made capes distributed throughout a crowd.
PC, microcomputers, LED displays, glass, various electronic components, internet, data from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Using real-time weather data and a software algorithm, Ocean Poems 000001 constructs poems that interpret local weather patterns. Each poem is a one-time composition that will likely never occur again. This work takes a “Soft UX” approach to expressing data, asking viewers to consider the way that we interact with the information that surrounds us all.
Technical and architectural-integration assistance: Monique Duran, Tayo Falase, Quin Kennedy, Josh Borsman, and Wendy Morrison.
Doppler Literature
Commission by NBBJ
42' (12.8m) x 210' (64m)
Excerpts from literature printed directly to reclaimed teak.
Photo credit: Sean Airhart, NBBJ
A drive with photos, poems, drawings, love notes, music, and family videos, sent into space. The drive included the first cryptocurrency in space.
As the trains rumble through Brooklyn, sensors in each station send data to the cloud, letting the system know that a train has arrived or departed. The sensors also send seismic “texture” data that is unique to each train and each station.
As the trains move throughout Brooklyn, the data flows in. The system’s algorithm examines the incoming data and triggers small pieces of pre-recorded music sent in by Brooklyn artists.
A collaboration with:
Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Dianne Berkun Menaker, Artistic Director (www.brooklynyouthchorus.org)
Alev Lenz (www.alevlenz.com)
Lucious (www.ilovelucius.com)
Myles Cameron (www.instagram.com/mylescam)
Hamilton Leithauser (www.hamiltonleithauser.com)
Ethan Alexander Rainbolt (www.ethanrainbolt.com)
Jonathan Warman (www.jonathanwarmanmusic.com)
Joe Clark & CamTec Precision (www.camtecprecision.com)
And many others
Fabrication video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpRS8Xil4x0
ACH helmet, paint, electronics.
Part of ongoing, on-site observations from Ukraine since March of 2022.
The work examines the unprecedented role of the internet in war.
Sonification of birth statistics expressed through Tibetan singing bowls with addressable robotic mallets.
Image ©2020 Samuel Stubblefield, LLC
Work with Hank Willis Thomas, StoryCorps, and MASS Design Group
The sonic backdrop to the installation is composed of high-fidelity recordings of shots fired from the most common guns used in violence. The sounds of guns firing are inverted, slowed down, and pitch-shifted to become music.
The music composition is 14 minutes and 20 seconds, which is the average frequency of death by gun violence in America.
Along with the sonic backdrop, audio excerpts from numerous interviews conducted by StoryCorps and MASS Design Group reference everyday life, helping visitors to the memorial observe commonalities with victims in a way that illustrates the ubiquity of gun violence.
“The memorial seeks to preserve individual memories and communicate the magnitude of the gun violence, hoping to foster a national healing process that begins with a recognition of our collective loss and its impact on society.” -MASS Design Group
Become involved: www.gunviolencememorialproject.org
Explorations of Mars
City Light
Architecturally-integrated neon, glass, and aluminium.
Revisiting materials and fabrication methods from the family sign shop.
Over thousands of years, humans have fabricated physical objects in an attempt to create connective tissue for immaterial cultural paradigms and systems of dogma. These invented objects have acted as aids in the pursuit of understanding reality and our place in the universe.
This work uses real-time metrics to create experiential, if not spiritual, connections to the most basic of physiological conditions: birth, suffering, and death.
Embracing existing religious artefacts and implements, this work uses seemingly now-worshipped data and technology in conjunction with traditional objects of worship. Augmentations to reclaimed Protestant church pews are used to express metrics of suicide by sending a wave of haptic vibration through the pew every 40.3 seconds, which is the averaged frequency of suicide in the world according to the WHO. The statistical data is conveyed through familiar components of spiritual settings: sound and haptic vibration.
Image ©2020 Samuel Stubblefield, LLC
Ring Machine
Steel, wood, ball bearings, motor, motor controllers, fabric, projection.
The motion of the sculpture is initiated by live wave-height data from NOAA (noaa.gov/).
The sound created by the movement of the ball bearings emulates the sound of ocean waves.
Work with Amie McNeel and Mark Zirpel.
Photo credit: Amie McNeel, James Harnois, Russell Johnson.
Bungees
Commission by NBBJ
An architectural installation looking at relational networks.
Materials: 2.09km (1.3 miles) of bungee cord, eye bolts
Size: 15m (50ft) X 4.5m (15ft) X 2.09km (1.3 miles)
Work with NBBJ architects (www.nbbj.com)
Photo credit: Sean Airhart (NBBJ), Jordan Amoth
Inner Tubes
Inner tubes, motors, combat robot motor controllers, Arduino, XBee, live data.
The woven inner-tube knot jitters as buses approach a stop near the gallery. The sculpture uses sensors to sense when a bus approaches. The sculpture has a removable capsule that contains a motor, robotic motor controller, Arduino, X-Bee transceiver, and rechargeable 12-volt battery.
Work with Amie McNeel and Mark Zirpel.
Photo credit: James Harnois
Installation view images ©2020 Samuel Stubblefield, LLC
Bell, Switchglass, Laser, Pool
Microphone, transducers, Switchglass, amplifier, water pool, laser, oil pipeline cap.
Acting as a bell, the oil pipeline cap sends an audio signal to transducers placed in a pool of water. Ripples created by the transducers move across the surface of the water. A laser pointed toward the water reflects onto the Switchglass. When the bell is rung, a light pattern emerges.
Work with Amie McNeel and Mark Zirpel.
Mekong Venice Reconfigured
Projectors, video processors, sound processors, server rack, displays.
Generative video and sound based on live internet data.
Magent
Fabricated steel, wood, magnet, transducers, MP3 player, 12-volt battery.
When manually rocked, the motion initiates a recording of Humpback whalesong. the sculpture becomes a resonating chamber for the vibrating whalesong, and steel and floor surfaces.
Work with Amie McNeel and Mark Zirpel.
Photo credit: Norman Ai
Untitled Interactive Installation (One World Trade Center)
5'-0" (1.5m) X 12'-0" (3.6m)
Computer, software, digital displays, cameras.
Collaboration with Joseph Gray.
Balloon
Weather balloon, internet, software, motorized blower, fabric.
The sculpture inflates every time the International Space Station passes over predetermined locations on earth.
Work with Amie McNeel and Mark Zirpel.
Nautical rope, galvanized steel I-beams, 90-volt motors, motor controllers, seismic data.
Simple motor rotation transforms the piece into a chaotic geometry through the transference of energy. Unique chaotic geometries are generated by arranging the rope in specific ways prior to activating the motor.
Work with Amie McNeel and Mark Zirpel.
China
Vacuum-formed letters, LED, cloth, vinyl film
NOT ART
Public art. Public critique. Stickers used to cast a vote on art in public.
Gimbal No. 1 (Voyager 1 + Kauaʻi ʻōʻō)
Oil pipeline cap, directional audio emitters, motor, rubber drive belt, found object, sound recordings.
Directional emitters send two, separate focused sounds toward the spinning dish. One sound signal is the last recorded mating call of the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, an extinct bird from Hawai'i. The other is a recording of NASA's Voyager 1 robotic probe as it moves through interstellar space.
As the dish spins, the linear sound signals, both aimed at the center of the dish, eventually collide. The sound creates a relationship between animals of the earth and deep space.
Also displayed at Centre Pompidou during Nuit Blanche, Paris.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuit_Blanche
Work with Amie McNeel and Mark Zirpel.
Additional sound assistance: April Soetarman
Installation view image ©2020 Samuel Stubblefield, LLC
Bungee (twist)
Bungee cord, motor, microcomputer, seismic data, vice.
Living Lab
Architectural design looking at connecting a city with urban infill projects focused on art, music, film, food and education.
project partners: Olsen Kundig architects
Winter Garden
Fabric, aluminum, directed light.
Winter Garden marks the point of entry for one of the largest art collections in the world.
Domaine de Boisbuchet (arrival)
Considering emotion and time while curating the arrival sequence at Domaine de Boisbuchet (Centre Pompidou / Vitra).
