Speakers

Dr. Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal

Dr. Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal is Cullen Distinguished Professor, director of the U.S. NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center for Building Reliable Advances and Innovations in Neurotechnology (IUCRC BRAIN) at the University of Houston, and an elected Fellow of the IEEE and AIMBE for his pioneering contributions to development of brain-machine interfaces for controlling wearable exoskeletons for rehabilitation, and for mapping art-evoked brain activity. He led an assessment of the global state of clinical trials of implantable brain-computer interfaces published in Nature Reviews Bioengineering. His work at the nexus of art and science is opening new windows to study the neural basis of creativity, social interaction, artistic BCIs with application to arts-in-medicine. His art-science team received the Chamber Music America’s 2025 Interdisciplinary Collaboration of the Year for “Meeting of Minds”, which was performed at the United Nations’ 2024 AI for Good” Summit in Geneva, Switzerland. His research has appeared in The Economist, Der Spiegel, WIRED, the Smithsonian Innovation Week, and Nature. Contreras-Vidal is a former member of the National Advisory Board for Medical Rehabilitation Research at the U.S. National Institute of Health. He serves in the Advisory Board of the BCI Society and IEEE BRAIN. His career development in biomedical engineering was highlighted by the journal Science.

Challenges and Opportunities for Creative BCI-driven GenAI in the Performing Arts: A Case Study of Balinese Gamelan, Brain, Mind, and Body

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) represent a direct communication channel between the brain and digital and physical environments. Technological convergence of BCI and Generative AI supported by team science approaches bridging the humanities, science and technology enable the study of the social and creative brain in action and in context in real-world artistic settings, while allowing a deeper understanding of the ways in which our brains respond to and are shaped by art along the dimensions of perception, emotion, aesthetics and action in different cultural settings. In this talk, I will discuss design principles, challenges, and opportunities for the deployment of creative BCI and AI systems for live interactive performances, including ethical, legal, technical, social, and cultural aspects. A case study of a Balinese Gamelan Performance supported by BCI and AI will be demonstrated.