Meeting of Minds

Meeting of Minds is a longitudinal art-science research collaboration with NobleMotion Dance and Musiqa, studying coupled brain activity, dance, and music as two dancers interact from a state of discord to collaboration, across rehearsals and public performance. The project uses brain-computer interface (BCI) and analysis techniques, including hyperscanning, adaptive noise canceling, and mobile brain-body imaging (MoBI), to capture intra- and inter-brain synchrony throughout the dance. Data is collected simultaneously via 28-channel scalp EEG, 4 channels of EOG, one IMU for head motion, and video recording, during both rehearsals and public performances.

The performance was presented at the United Nations AI for Good Summit in Geneva on May 31, 2024. I traveled to Geneva as part of the UH BRAIN Center team to record the mobile brain imaging data during the performance.

The Performance

Meeting of Minds is structured in 10 scenes, each representing a different type of interaction between the dancers, Lauren Serrano and Tyler Orcutt. The first four scenes are solo performances. Scene 5 marks the first time the dancers perform together, in a state of conflict. As the choreography, by Andy and Dionne Noble, progresses, the dancers engage through eye contact, touch, and synchronized movement, culminating in a cooperative climax that integrates all of these interactions.

Live Brain Visualization

During recordings, data is filtered and processed in real time via a BCI to drive visual projections, designed by Shepherd School doctoral candidate Badie Khaleghian, that show the level of inter-brain synchrony as it happens, making Meeting of Minds one of the first dance performances to visualize inter-brain synchrony live. A novel EEG denoising pipeline developed for this project is also in preparation for presentation.

Presented at IUCRC BRAIN

An abstract on this work, Neural dynamics of social interaction during creative movements from a state of discord to “Meeting of Minds”: A longitudinal art-science performance, was presented at the IUCRC BRAIN Symposium.

Origin

Meeting of Minds began in November 2023 as a follow-up to LiveWire, originating from a TEDx talk at Sam Houston State University by Andy Noble. The most recent data collection took place on October 2, 2025.

As part of the ongoing Meeting of Minds project, I mentored Harshil Vijayan, an NSAP student, through his summer research contribution to the study. Harshil worked hands-on with the mobile brain-body imaging (MoBI) data, structuring it and carrying out the functional mapping that lays the groundwork for the synchrony analysis ahead. He presented this work as a poster at the IUCRC BRAIN Symposium.

Alongside this, I mentored him on building a tool aimed at making brain signal processing more accessible to other researchers working with this kind of data. We are currently developing this data descriptor.

Partner Institutions

• NobleMotion Dance
• Musiqa
• Rice University, NEA Research Lab
• Sam Houston State University
• University of Houston, BRAIN Center

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation IUCRC BRAIN Award #2137255.