Ever wonder what your brain really sounds like?

Tally M. Largent-Milnes, a researcher with a passion for pain and neuroscience, and Cynthia Stokes, the director for UA Opera Theatre, have.

A new and innovative art installation,“Hearing the Invisible,” will showcase how brain data can be transformed into music to advance research in detecting invisible brain conditions such as Alzheimer’s.

The project is a collaboration between the School of Music and School of Medicine.

Largent-Milnes, from the department of pharmacology, was inspired to transform EEGs, or electroencephalograms, after reading the children’s book “The Phantom Tollbooth.”
This is a story about a boy named Milo who travels through a fantasy world, meeting whimsical characters and learning valuable lessons along the way.

“The inspiration really came from this book and the chapter particularly on Cromwell, who was conducting the symphony of colors, bringing color into the world,” said Largent-Milnes. “I wondered what it would be like if you could hear what a brain sounds like.”

Largent-Milnes, who researches cancer in the Department of Pharmacology, and UA opera director Stokes have been collaborating on this art installation for the past six months with their students, Michael Vince and Matt Flowers.

Vince, the audio designer and composer for the project, developed an app that allows guests to navigate the installation and experience his immersive 3D audio.

“I think that working with the medical department has definitely challenged me, especially as a composer, because it is not something I have spent a lot of time learning about,” said Vince. “Going through this process has really expanded my knowledge. Making an app was a huge challenge, but it was super rewarding to see it all come together.”

This installation is a combination of both art and science with musical components. When guests enter the installation, it will be as if they are inside of a human brain. Both audio and visual interact through the app and features a live EEG reading. There will also be a live composition performed by students that is based on EEG data.

“I think that one of the most important things is that, particularly for women and other underserved communities, it’s harder to identify an invisible disease like Alzheimer’s or migraines or depression, and what these diagnostics do is really give people a chance to investigate what is actually going on inside the brain on a much more detailed level,” Stokes said. “The second piece of it is about walking in somebody else’s shoes and I hope people will develop empathy for people experiencing these invisible diseases.”

Through this installation, Largent-Milnes and Stokes aim to bring more awareness to these invisible diseases and hope to demonstrate that sound can be a helpful tool in diagnosing invisible brain diseases.

This project has helped to foster a sense of unity and community within the School of Music and School of Medicine, bridging these two different fields together to create a cohesive and innovative installation.

“Hearing the Invisible” will be open to the public from 6-8 p.m. Feb. 13, 4-8 p.m. Feb. 14, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Feb. 15 at the Tornabene Theatre, 1025 N Olive Road, on the University of Arizona campus. Admission is free. To learn more, visit arts.arizona.edu/events/hearing-the-invisible.

Arizona Sonoran News is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.