The Ninth Muse
Solo exhibition
Pallas Projects, in partnership with Beta Festival, Dublin.
29/10/23—18/11/23
The Ninth Muse speculates the creative and social ramifications of consumer brain-machine interfacing, drawing inspiration from the Nine Muses of ancient Greek mythology. The work centers on the 'Muse' headband, a consumer-grade brain-machine interface employing EEG neurofeedback to enhance meditation. Greenan envisions the potential for such technology to infiltrate our unconscious minds, offering feminist strategies to counter corporate entanglements.
The artist situates 20th-century surrealist techniques for hacking the unconscious as a precursor to the current surge of neurotechnologies in the consumer market. The installation updates Dalí's hypnagogic sleep method by situating the Muse headband above an automated office chair, which drops keys to trigger imaginative material.* Through a process akin to Dalí’s Paranoiac-critical method, Greenan has made a series of collage drawings that provide the gateway to the exhibition's titular video piece.*
A giant, mutable sculpture, inspired by neural architecture, becomes a canvas for performers to probe and manipulate, while its chromakey-patterned
surface integrates a stream of AI-generated imagery. The soundscape weaves in an invocation to the ninth muse, Calliope, taking cues from various feminist texts. This script prompts the AI to modify the imagery as a poet recites, resulting in a series of monstrous mutations. Glitches, stemming from the artist's Muse-driven brainwave fluctuations, intermittently disrupt the image, repurposing the headband as a tool for both artistic augmentation and corporate resistance. This invocation will be performed live on the opening night. The video work will be exhibited simultaneously at Beta Festival, The Digital Hub, Dublin.
● Dalí would nap in an armchair, holding a set of keys above a metal plate, whereupon the sound of them falling would awaken him with imaginative material for his work.
● Dalí would combine multiple disparate images into one, to stimulate in himself and the viewer ‘a delirium of interpretation’.
Related Events:
An Invocation to Calliope, Pallas Projects, will be performed by a femme chorus on the opening night.
The Bodily Experience in Hyperconnected Realities: Art and Technology, Beta Festival, The Digital Hub, 4th November, 12pm. Live panel with Dr. Angela Butler, Aoibheann Greenan and Joanna Walsh. This conversation will address art’s role in the digital age and its influence on the human-AI relationship, focusing on how technology impacts our embodied experiences and how it may shape our future connections. By delving into the implications of our burgeoning digital connections on our tangible and emotional experiences, the panelists will explore the emerging social dynamics, identities, and innovative thought patterns arising from interconnected realities.
Neural Landscapes, Pallas Projects, Dublin, 9th November, 5:30-6:30 pm. Aoibheann Greenan will be joined by artist Alan James Burns for a conversation that spans the convergence of art and neurotechnology, as it relates to each of their artistic practices, and a broader discussion of the work in The Ninth Muse exhibition.
BCI mentoring: AlanJames Burns Consultancy: Kev Freeney Videography: Dor Even Chen Editing: Aoibheann Greenan Analog assets (Sculptures and collage drawings): Aoibheann Greenan AI assets: Mark Dockery Touch Designer: Pauric Freeman Keying: Basim Ahmed Design/fabrication of Muse headset holder: Byron Kalomamas Design/fabrication of chair platform: Breffni McGeough Sound Design: Dominic Kennedy Instrumentation: Rob Mirolo Vocals: Fionnuala Kennedy Invocation writer/choir leader/performer: Carina Fitzpatrick
Live performers: Annique van Niekerk Bri O' Doherty Kearstyn Takemoto Courtney Sharos