Saturday, May 30, 2015

Event 2: LASER Symposium

Upon arriving at the California Nanosystems Institute, I realized that I had never approached this building in my two years of attending UCLA. I didn't even know it existed. My friend and I attended the LASER event, which stands for the Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous. The event featured a series of presentations and lectures on art, science, and technology. Each artist or scientist had five minutes to describe the art and science projects they have been working on or worked on in the past.





One of the projects that stood out to me was called Collective Tuning via Pink Noise. The speakers on this topic were Caitlin Foley and Mischa Robabinovich and they discussed their project of a Pink Noise Salon. The salon is a place where people are invited to lounge and listen to the ocean while wearing Shellphones and tune into a pink noise pirate radio station. The afternoon salon is meant to have rejuvenation effects and it travels from city to city, allowing people to form a positive bond with each other in the sauna. This really opened up my imagination to the ways in which art and science are connected in the form of sound and a place where people can go to rejuvenate. 


After reading about the pink noise salon, I was curious as to what the specific effects of pink noise were on the brain. In an article about the effects on brain activity by 6 doctors, they found that pink noise improves sleep stability. They carried out a study of 6 subjects, feeding them with 10 minutes of quiet followed by 10 minutes of noise. After, the subjects EEG signals in the brain were studied as they took a nap. It was found that those who were exposed to the noise showed significant enhancement in the percentage of stable sleep in comparison to the group who was not exposed to any noise. 



Sources:

Pure Pink Noise. N.p., Sept. 2012. Web. 30 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ9Go1PnAVA>.

Rabinovich, Misch. "Pink Noise Salon." Portfolio of Mischa Rabinovich. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2015. <http://misharabinovich.com/pink_noise_salon.html>.

"EXHIBITION: Infinity Structures: Paradoxical Spaces by Robert Gero | UCLA Art | Sci Center + Lab." EXHIBITION: Infinity Structures: Paradoxical Spaces by Robert Gero | UCLA Art | Sci Center + Lab. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 May 2015. <http://artsci.ucla.edu/?q=events%2Fexhibition-infinity-structures-paradoxical-spaces-robert-gero>.

Zhou, J., D. Liu, X. Ma, J. Zhang, and J. Fang. "Pink Noise: Effect on Complexity Synchronization of Brain Activity and Sleep Consolidation." Diss. N.d. Abstract. (2012): n. pag. PubMed. Web. 30 May 2015.

Pink Noise Salon. Vimeo, Aug. 2014. Web. 30 May 2015. <https://vimeo.com/101967515>.

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