Bio Lux: Optical Fiber Attire

In a time when technology seems to favor the virtual, Nobuho Nagasawa’s art-making remains tactile and founded on her practice of hand-labor. She seeks a balance between art, technology, and science. Her first optical fiber attire Bio Lux, an interactive illuminated garment that uses microcontroller electronics and optical fiber, was designed to respond to and accentuate the movements of a performing pianist.

In the first Bio Lux, the microcontroller mainboard and power supply are sewn into a garment with an accelerometer. This detects and monitors the heartbeat, the breath, and the vibration of the wearer’s body translates the movement readings into LEDs and sparks the fiber optics garment to change colors. Synesthesia inspires a new way of experiencing music, not only audibly but visually as well.

The optical fiber attire in this display is activated by the brainwaves. An EEG headset measures and transfers the power spectrum (alpha waves, beta waves, etc.) data via Bluetooth to the computer. This EEG reads the user’s brain waves which are in turn expressed in light. The lines of light are woven fiber optic cables in which light flows like water.

Brainwaves are electrical impulses in our brains. An individual's behavior, emotions, and thoughts are communicated between neurons within our brains. All brain waves are produced by synchronized electrical pulses from masses of neurons communicating with each other. Our brain waves occur at various frequencies. Because the brainwaves of each person are different, EEG to color mapping provides a unique expression of individuality and is a beautiful merger of art and science.