Per Huttner presents the performance “One Step Closer to the Abyss” together with a second performer (Colin Siyuan Chinnery in Beijing and Amine Melki in Sousse). The piece was created by Huttner together with London based musician Tomas Nordmark. The performance includes music and images that are by influenced by the second performer’s brain activity in real time.
All the sonic input in “One Step Closer to the Abyss” comes from a traditional electric guitar. The sounds have been transformed multiple times by Huttner’s brain activity to create aesthetically interesting sounds. The two goal in the creative process has been to both retain a sense of guitar and at the same time to leave traces of Huttner’s stubborn brain.
The performance takes its inspiration from Mark Fisher’s writings and his reflections on the weird and the eerie: how humans and art deal with the unknown in their everyday and in artistic creation. Fisher is an important influence on Nordmark’s work and he gave a copy of “The Weird and the Eerie” to Hunter when the project started.

“One Step Closer to the Abyss” uses the EEGsynth (www.eegsynth.org) which is a hard and software platform that uses electroencephalogram (EEG) to allow performers to create sounds and images based on signals from the human brain. The EEGsynth platform has grown and developed fast since it was first created in 2014. It is used by artists and researchers in Sweden, France, Norway, the Netherlands and in the UK.

The EEGsynth can also read signals from trees, fish and microbes that are used by artists from different genres to create performances. The EEGsynth team has made over 70 performances and workshops in a number of European countries, Mexico, Egypt, Brazil and the US. There has been a lot of interest both the technology. French film maker Fabien Guillermont has made a full length documentary on the project.

Performance in Beijing 20h, June 8 and in Sousse 20h, July 19, 2024.