Press preview: ‘My Virtual Dream’ technology to produce brain-wave art at UCI
EVENT: What kind of art would journalists’ brain waves produce? Put your gray matter to the test in a preview demonstration of “My Virtual Dream,” a multisensory experience to be featured by UCI’s Department of Neurology and School of Medicine at the 50th Anniversary Festival of Discovery.
WHEN/WHERE: 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, in UCI’s Aldrich Park (F7 on campus map)
INFORMATION: Media planning to attend should contact Cathy Lawhon at 949-824-1151 or clawhon@uci.edu. Parking is complimentary for media who RSVP in advance.
BACKGROUND: “My Virtual Dream” is an artistic application of brain-mapping technology used for medical research. Wearing wireless headsets, “dreamers” use their brain waves to co-create a spectacular panorama of dynamic colors, sights and sounds. Art, science and technology combine to create a multisensory experience that explores the brain and ignites the imagination. In medical research, the technology is used to simulate both healthy and diseased individual human brains on computers so doctors can use the simulation of a particular patient to help diagnose disease or to deliver different forms of therapy. Dr. Steven Small, professor and chair of the Department of Neurology at UCI, will be on hand to explain the research. “My Virtual Dream” is one of dozens of hands-on science displays and activities planned for UCI’s Saturday, Oct. 3, Festival of Discovery. The daylong festival, which begins with an Anteater 5K Fun Run at 7 a.m., is part of the campus’s 50th anniversary celebration.