It was the story of an eccentric computer genius with a laser wired into his eyeglasses meeting an oddball clothing designer who fashions dresses made from eggshells and human hair. Sound confusing? Yes, but so is the whole concept of the Deconcert that U of T neuroscience grad and alt-clothing impresario Ariel Garten co-ordinated with Steve Mann (above), an electrical engineering prof who pioneered the wearable computer. To clarify, picture this: the Deconism gallery, across the street from the AGO, was transformed into a huge human experiment. Take 48 unassuming patrons and wire them simultaneously into brainwave-reading EEG machines. Transmit the brainwave signals to a computer that averages the input and converts the signal into sound. Get a rhythm section that controls a drum machine with their heartbeats and prepare yourself for the strangest piece of music you’ve ever heard, in which the melodies are interpreted and continually changed by the brains producing them. It’s a giant, slightly psychedelic, cybernetic feedback loop. I heard a lot of queer phrases floating around, like “transnational consciousness,” but all I learned was that a Deconcert is very fucking cool indeed.
