Francesca Brittan, Associate Professor of Music, has been awarded an Expanding Horizons / Experimental Humanities Grant for the creation of a Brain Media Lab, in collaboration with Vera Tobin (Cognitive Science) and Stephan Haluska (Music).
The Brain Media Lab will bring together musicians, cognitive neuroscientists, computer scientists, and engineers to explore how brain activity can be transformed into sound. Central to the project is the use of sonified EEG, raising compelling questions such as: What do listening brains sound like? What do improvising brains sound like?
These ideas will be explored in Music for Live Brains (February 2027), a concert featuring students from CWRU and the Cleveland Institute of Music, presented in partnership with experimental music pioneer David Rosenboom (CalArts). The project highlights the Department of Music’s commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration, experimental practice, and student engagement at the intersection of music, science, and technology.