"The Plastic Brain" (2024)

Premiered on Oct. 5, 2024 at NYU GSAS Sounds of De/Composition Conference 2024

Our planet is contaminated with plastic waste and microplastics, from our oceans to our volcanoes at the core of the Earth. But what about the human body? Researchers have recently discovered that microplastics from our gut can also travel up to our brains, breaking the blood-brain barrier and exposing our brains to harmful substances leading to more diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer's.

Although these studies are still relatively new, there is no way to tell how dangerous plastics are to our biology. Furthermore, there still needs to be more understanding of how microplastics and pollution affect brainwave activity. Activities such as sleep, alertness/focus and meditation are some of the states that can be measured using commercial electroencephalogram (EEG) interfaces, and by measuring brainwave activity in various polluted environments (including interactions with the contaminated materials), this study aims to visualize the effects of pollution on our brains.

“The Plastic Brain” is an intermedia installation exploring the relationship between our environments and how contamination and pollution of the Earth results to the pollution of our own bodies. By using various methods of spectrography to analyze photos of polluted NYC streets, SENAIDA creates a sonic landscape of our decomposing environments which are a reflection of the decomposing of our bodies through harmful gaseous chemicals and microplastics.

Created with the support of the NYU Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Materials used: Bioplastic brain (agar agar, glycerine, water, food colouring), Optoma projectors, Muse EEG Headband, Arduino Nano

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Links:
‍Research Paper on Acute Exposure to Microplastics
‍VOSIS Image Sonification App