THE OCTAVE OF VISIBLE LIGHT:
A MEDITATION NIGHTCLUB
“Sensual and ocular for the audience, generating an incredibly profound experience that optically bewilders and hypnotizes.”– Whitewall Magazine
THE OCTAVE OF VISIBLE LIGHT: A MEDITATION NIGHTCLUB
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, in partnership with Art Production Fund, presents artist-in-residence Lia Chavez who creates a pop-up nightclub in P3Studio. Combining performance art, neuroscience, and technological invention, The Octave of Visible Light: A Meditation Nightclub invites participants to explore the wondrous nature of oscillatory resonance throughout the universe.
Chavez is known for work that probes the rich and mysterious relationship between light and consciousness. For The Octave of Visible Light, she has invented a revolutionary digital neurology system in collaboration with the creative technology studio, rehab, which allows participants to observe the relationship between their neural oscillations and the corresponding frequencies in light and sound. This original multimedia biofeedback meditation technology harnesses neurological information to orchestrate an immersive atmosphere of luminous chromatics and sonic resonance that are intended to induce a refined state of awareness and transcendental sensations.
“Mesmerizing.”
–The New York Times
In conceiving the work, Chavez has drawn upon a rich theoretical universe, including Sir Isaac Newton’s synesthetic theories of concurrent frequencies, discoveries of physicist Winfried Otto Schumann, and the field of bio-resonance frequency therapy. The immersive experience is designed to produce a profound synchronization of the brain’s right and left hemispheres; featuring pre-recorded vocals by Au Revoir Simone front woman Erika Spring, low frequency sonic waveforms are non-invasively delivered to the body of the viewer.
Participants are invited to wear an EEG headset as Chavez guides them through a customized mindfulness meditation. The headset detects participants’ brainwaves and, via bluetooth, transmits a custom-coded signal to the audio visual system.
The signal’s frequency and strength mirrors the participant’s neural activity, which is reflected in the intensity and register of the color and sound emitted by the system. As a result, each audio-visual ‘DJ set’ is unique to the person wearing the headset. The deeper a participant’s state of contemplation, the more fully the viewer is able to cycle through the entire spectrum of visible light and sound.
“Chavez seems like a modern-day Franciscan in her conviction about the analogic ability of light to evoke the divine.”
– Image Journal
By creating carefully choreographed correlations between neurobiological, sonic, and visual resonances, The Octave of Visible Light generates live feedback for the viewer to observe and reciprocate. Light and sound become sensorial guides to ecstatic states of meditative intensity, thus empowering the viewer to explore the role consciousness can play in sculpting and stabilizing one’s interior and exterior environment.
The artist-in-residence program at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas represents one component of its larger art program, in which artists create projects that are interactive and participatory, giving guests the opportunity to connect at an authentic and personal level. Developed and curated in partnership with Art Production Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to producing ambitious public art projects, it strives to reach new audiences and expand awareness through contemporary art.
“Engulfing and eternal.”
–PSFK
“A new type of nightclub.”
– Cool Hunting
Details
The Octave of Visible Light: A Meditation Nightclub, 2015
Participatory installation and performance
Presented by Art Production Fund at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
Featuring an original multimedia biofeedback meditation technology co-invented by Lia Chavez and rehab
Credits
Artistic Director and Performer: Lia Chavez
Producer and Curator: Art Production Fund
Presenter: The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
Code and Hardware Developers: rehab
Neuroscience Consultants: Dr. Joydeep Bhattacharya and Dr. Caroline Di Bernardi Luft
Research Funding Bodies: Creativity Enhancement through Advanced Brain Mapping and Stimulation (CREAM) and Seventh Framework Programme
Documentation: Sam Cox
Selected Press
T: The New York Times Style Magazine