In 2017 Brandt co-authored The Runaway Species with renowned neuroscientist David Eagleman, a book which inspired the Netflix documentary The Creative Brain. Brandt’s newest composition takes its name from Eagleman’s proposed term for brain plasticity.
During the rehearsal process for LiveWire, dancers from NobleMotion were fitted with EEG caps during rehearsals and monitored by University of Houston neuroscientist Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal, who gauged their brains’ reaction to improvisational exercises and Brandt’s score. This information gleaned from this process was used to further craft the choreography by Andy and Dionne Noble.
Emily Fens is a Houston-based visual artist who received her formal training from the Glassell School of Art and holds a BS in Neuroscience from UCLA. Using watercolor and pen on paper, she creates fantastical portraits of the mind inspired by her studies of neuroscience and related philosophies, often with synesthetic undercurrents. Recent projects include Brainbloom for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s Music on the Plaza ft. Wild Moccasins and ongoing works on paper series: Brain Portraits and Atlas Chimera.
