Science Quickly The Dead Composer Whose ‘Brain’ Still Makes Music
Sep 26, 2025
Allison Parshall, an associate editor at Scientific American, delves into a groundbreaking exhibit featuring brain cells from composer Alvin Lucier that create sound. The discussion highlights the intersection of neuroscience and art, exploring profound questions about creativity and consciousness. Parshall explains the concept of brain organoids and their limitations, as well as Lucier's innovative methods that fuse scientific principles with musical composition. The episode raises intriguing debates about the potential learning capabilities of organoids and their philosophical implications.
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Haunting Museum Installation
- Visitors enter a cochlea-shaped hallway lined with vibrating brass plates that produce changing sounds throughout the space.
- At the center sits a plinth with a tiny organoid grown from Alvin Lucier's blood that helps generate those sounds.
Lucier Turned Brainwaves Into Music
- In the 1960s Lucier used EEG alpha waves from meditation to mechanically drive percussion and produce audible music.
- He set up physical conditions so brain activity itself would cause instruments to vibrate and create sound.
From Self-Portrait To Cellular Duet
- Artist Guy Ben-Ari cultivated his own cells into neurons and wired them to synths for an improvisational piece called CELF that played with musicians.
- Alvin Lucier agreed to perform with Guy and later suggested using his own cells when plans shifted due to COVID and his fall.
