Telematic performance enforced by the pandemic:NeuroKnitting Beethoven

Abstract

ABSTRACT The interactive performance NeuroKnitting Beethoven was conceived as a live work combining music, neurofeedback and algorithmic knitting to commemorate Ludwig van Beethoven’s 250th anniversary and to provide an alternative experience of the classical music canon. This article describes how, due to travel restrictions during the COVID pandemic, the interactive performance became also a telematic project. Apart from the practical considerations regarding the technical execution and adaptation of the work, we focus on the opportunities provided by this transition. We further reflect on how meanings and dynamics ingrained in the technical media deployed by the artists are uncovered and actualised in a new context. Taking the concept of data sensification as our starting point, we examine the capability of biometric data for establishing ‘telepathic’ connections and the latent imaginative potential of EEG technology that underscores its cultural history. In the context of social distancing during the Covid pandemic, when real-time video and sound connections were found to be an inadequate surrogate for in-person communication, we argue that sensification of brain data could be a means for creating an alternative space of remote intimacy and for providing an experience of ‘psychic’ connection between the participants.