Dream Machine

A participant wears an EEG headset; five frequency bands become the input of an AI driven generative system that produces images from brain activity in real time.

Dream Machine is an ongoing interactive project investigating artificial intelligence, neurotechnology and the trust we place in technological interpretations of ourselves. A participant wears an Emotiv EPOC+ EEG headset; the system works with five major EEG frequency bands (Theta, Alpha, Low Beta, High Beta and Gamma) whose variations become inputs for an AI driven generative system. Using Stable Diffusion SD Turbo, the sensor device produces an evolving visual environment from the traces of the participant's brain activity in real time, with a generative sound component in development.

EEG provides measurements, not an image of a thought. Between the biological signal and the final visual environment lies an entire chain of transformations, decisions, models and interpretations, and Dream Machine deliberately places the participant at both the beginning and the end of that chain.

The project raises disturbing questions: are we looking at the person's mind, or at the imagination of the machine? How much of yourself are we willing to recognize in the image?