12/2025 - ongoing
The first neuroscience study inside world-renowned nightclub Fabric London
Photography by Stefan Hanegraaf
Team
Research
Oliver Durcan, Dr Peter Holland, Prof. Guido Orgs, Miles Comer, Oran Gottlieb, Jolie De Waal, Albane Arthuis, Anna Stewart, Francesca Mamino, Anna Mankowska, Safiyyah Nawaz
Operational and Technical
Bianca Mayhew, Oliver Durcan, Dr Peter Holland, Luke Laws, Mike Becker
Partners
Goldsmiths University of London, Mastery, London Warehouse Events (LWE), Fabric London
Press
Inverted Audio | February 2026
Music Radar | February 2026
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Background
Mastery: Quantum Sound is an 11 track album on Fabric’s Houndstooth Records, featuring drum-free, ambient music by Djrum, Wata Igarashi, Alessandro Cortini, amongst others. The current study used the album as listening stimuli to explore neural correlates of musical information and altered states of consciousness. We also explored the effects of headphones vs sound system delivery impacts these mappings but this will be explored in a later analysis.
Deep music listening experiences can be described as merging with, dissolving into, or losing yourself in the sound. These descriptions align with psychological constructs like ego-dissolution, unity, and self-transcendence which have commonly been observed in studies of psychedelic and flow-state experiences (Yaden et al., 2017). The current study was conducted to explore whether these psychological states could be observed in the dynamic transitions of neural and musical information across the Mastery: Quantum Sound album.
Methods
Fifteen participants listened to the 71-min continuous album mix in two settings - once at the Mastery: Quantum Sound album listening event in Fabric room 1 and once with in-ear headphones at the School of Mind, Brain and Society EEG lab at Goldsmiths University of London. In both sessions, all participants had 32-channel EEG fitted and lay on their back with an eye mask on. Importantly, in the Fabric session, participants lay directly on top of the Bodykinetic dancefloor that pushes 25-60Hz sub-frequencies, in addition to the room's quadrophonic sound system.
After the album ended, participants provided temporal experience traces (Jachs et al., 2022) to annotate changes in their subjective states across the different stages in the album. This data combined tells us what the brain was doing (an objective record) and how the listener felt (a subjective record) as the album unfolded, and through two very different sound modalities.
Mastery: Quantum Sound is an 11 track album on Fabric’s Houndstooth Records, featuring drum-free, ambient music by Djrum, Wata Igarashi, Alessandro Cortini, amongst others. The current study used the album as listening stimuli to explore neural correlates of musical information and altered states of consciousness. We also explored the effects of headphones vs sound system delivery impacts these mappings but this will be explored in a later analysis.
Deep music listening experiences can be described as merging with, dissolving into, or losing yourself in the sound. These descriptions align with psychological constructs like ego-dissolution, unity, and self-transcendence which have commonly been observed in studies of psychedelic and flow-state experiences (Yaden et al., 2017). The current study was conducted to explore whether these psychological states could be observed in the dynamic transitions of neural and musical information across the Mastery: Quantum Sound album.
Methods
Fifteen participants listened to the 71-min continuous album mix in two settings - once at the Mastery: Quantum Sound album listening event in Fabric room 1 and once with in-ear headphones at the School of Mind, Brain and Society EEG lab at Goldsmiths University of London. In both sessions, all participants had 32-channel EEG fitted and lay on their back with an eye mask on. Importantly, in the Fabric session, participants lay directly on top of the Bodykinetic dancefloor that pushes 25-60Hz sub-frequencies, in addition to the room's quadrophonic sound system.
After the album ended, participants provided temporal experience traces (Jachs et al., 2022) to annotate changes in their subjective states across the different stages in the album. This data combined tells us what the brain was doing (an objective record) and how the listener felt (a subjective record) as the album unfolded, and through two very different sound modalities.
Interactive Dashboard
The dashboard below is an early preview of our EEG analysis so far, refined to the album's opening track, Bliss Code 000, with data pooled across both venues and all 15 participants (15 × 2 sessions). We used microstate analysis to interpret the EEG, provisionally labelling four maps A, B, C and E by visual similarity to canonical patterns identified in past literature (Custo et al., 2017; Tarailis et al., 2024):
- Microstate A. Associated with auditory processing and with general arousal and alertness.
- Microstate B. Associated with visual processing and with self-related imagery and memory.
- Microstate C. Associated with self-reflection and inwardly directed, self-referential thought.
- Microstate E. Associated with the brain's salience network and with the processing of interoceptive (bodily) and emotional information.
Microstates are a small number of recurring scalp-wide patterns that have been observed repeatedly across studies since the 1980s. Each pattern holds for a fraction of a second before switching abruptly to another. The dynamic the player below simulates from our own data (topoplot can be toggled on or off). Because a microstate reflects the whole field of activity across the scalp at once, it is best understood not as a single region "lighting up" but as a momentary global configuration of the brain. For this reason they have been called the "atoms of thought."
The lines in the player track each microstate's coverage, which is the proportion of time, within a moving window, that the pattern is the dominant configuration. A rising line therefore means a pattern is present a greater share of the time during that stretch of music. It does not mean the pattern is "stronger" or that a brain region is more active, only that this configuration is occupying more of the moment-to-moment sequence.
The lines in the player track each microstate's coverage, which is the proportion of time, within a moving window, that the pattern is the dominant configuration. A rising line therefore means a pattern is present a greater share of the time during that stretch of music. It does not mean the pattern is "stronger" or that a brain region is more active, only that this configuration is occupying more of the moment-to-moment sequence.
What we found
In our data, one relationship stood out. The coverage of a posterior microstate (Microstate E, blue line) tracked listeners' later reports of feeling part of the music. The strength with which participants endorsed the statement "I felt like I was part of the musical features" (orange line) followed a similar trajectory to the coverage of Microstate E. Across the 30 sessions this was a small but reliable positive association (r ≈ 0.14; t = 3.63, p < .001), it was the only one of the four maps to track this feeling, and it survived correction for multiple comparisons.
Separately, the coverage of these maps also tracked features of the music itself. When using the dashboard above and watching Microstate E specifically, its peaks and troughs appear to rise and fall with the music's larger movements. The microstate climbs as new sounds or layers enter and gain prevalence and ease as prevailing material clears away. The pattern seems less about sheer loudness than about the arrival and growth of new musical features.
This guides our analysis towards richer modelling of musical features than has been applied here or indeed in this literature, so far. For now it is a qualitative observation that we intend to formalise and test directly.
Microstate E and the salience network
The reason this is intriguing is what Microstate E has been linked to elsewhere. Although it is among the less-studied maps, source-localisation and combined EEG–fMRI work has placed its generators in regions including the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral insula, which are core hubs of the brain's salience network (Custo et al., 2017; Britz et al., 2010).
The salience network is broadly understood to detect and prioritise the most behaviourally relevant signals at any moment. Whether these signals arise from the outside world or from the body, it coordinates the brain's response to them, including the integration of interoceptive (bodily) and emotional information. Consistent with this, several studies have tied Microstate E to bodily and affective states: its presence has been related to somatic awareness, to bodily sensation during acupuncture, and to heightened vigilance under acute stress (Tarailis et al., 2024).
This association offers a natural lens on what we observed. A network whose job is to flag and integrate newly relevant signals would plausibly engage as fresh musical features enter and develop and might also underpin the sense of being drawn into, or part of, the unfolding sound. That would link the two strands of our finding: a salience-related configuration responding both to the arrival of new musical material and to the subjective feeling of merging with it.
We must hold this interpretation loosely. The literature on E is still emerging and mixed - its functional role is not settled. With this caveat, the present findings tentatively suggest that the coverage of this posterior microstate may index how attention to complex, layered, non-rhythmic music ebbs and flows, and how strongly a listener feels drawn into it. Further analysis is needed to confirm this.
Bibliography
Britz, J., Van De Ville, D., & Michel, C. M. (2010). BOLD correlates of EEG topography reveal rapid resting-state network dynamics. Neuroimage, 52(4), 1162-1170.
Custo, A., Van De Ville, D., Wells, W. M., Tomescu, M. I., Brunet, D., & Michel, C. M. (2017). Electroencephalographic resting-state networks: source localization of microstates. Brain connectivity, 7(10), 671-682.
Jachs, B. (2022). The neurophenomenology of meditative states: Introducing temporal experience tracing to capture subjective experience states and their neural correlates (Doctoral dissertation).
Tarailis, P., Koenig, T., Michel, C. M., & Griškova-Bulanova, I. (2024). The functional aspects of resting EEG microstates: a systematic review. Brain topography, 37(2), 181-217.
Yaden, D. B., Haidt, J., Hood Jr, R. W., Vago, D. R., & Newberg, A. B. (2017). The varieties of self-transcendent experience. Review of general psychology, 21(2), 143-160.
In our data, one relationship stood out. The coverage of a posterior microstate (Microstate E, blue line) tracked listeners' later reports of feeling part of the music. The strength with which participants endorsed the statement "I felt like I was part of the musical features" (orange line) followed a similar trajectory to the coverage of Microstate E. Across the 30 sessions this was a small but reliable positive association (r ≈ 0.14; t = 3.63, p < .001), it was the only one of the four maps to track this feeling, and it survived correction for multiple comparisons.
Separately, the coverage of these maps also tracked features of the music itself. When using the dashboard above and watching Microstate E specifically, its peaks and troughs appear to rise and fall with the music's larger movements. The microstate climbs as new sounds or layers enter and gain prevalence and ease as prevailing material clears away. The pattern seems less about sheer loudness than about the arrival and growth of new musical features.
This guides our analysis towards richer modelling of musical features than has been applied here or indeed in this literature, so far. For now it is a qualitative observation that we intend to formalise and test directly.
Microstate E and the salience network
The reason this is intriguing is what Microstate E has been linked to elsewhere. Although it is among the less-studied maps, source-localisation and combined EEG–fMRI work has placed its generators in regions including the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral insula, which are core hubs of the brain's salience network (Custo et al., 2017; Britz et al., 2010).
The salience network is broadly understood to detect and prioritise the most behaviourally relevant signals at any moment. Whether these signals arise from the outside world or from the body, it coordinates the brain's response to them, including the integration of interoceptive (bodily) and emotional information. Consistent with this, several studies have tied Microstate E to bodily and affective states: its presence has been related to somatic awareness, to bodily sensation during acupuncture, and to heightened vigilance under acute stress (Tarailis et al., 2024).
This association offers a natural lens on what we observed. A network whose job is to flag and integrate newly relevant signals would plausibly engage as fresh musical features enter and develop and might also underpin the sense of being drawn into, or part of, the unfolding sound. That would link the two strands of our finding: a salience-related configuration responding both to the arrival of new musical material and to the subjective feeling of merging with it.
We must hold this interpretation loosely. The literature on E is still emerging and mixed - its functional role is not settled. With this caveat, the present findings tentatively suggest that the coverage of this posterior microstate may index how attention to complex, layered, non-rhythmic music ebbs and flows, and how strongly a listener feels drawn into it. Further analysis is needed to confirm this.
Bibliography
Britz, J., Van De Ville, D., & Michel, C. M. (2010). BOLD correlates of EEG topography reveal rapid resting-state network dynamics. Neuroimage, 52(4), 1162-1170.
Custo, A., Van De Ville, D., Wells, W. M., Tomescu, M. I., Brunet, D., & Michel, C. M. (2017). Electroencephalographic resting-state networks: source localization of microstates. Brain connectivity, 7(10), 671-682.
Jachs, B. (2022). The neurophenomenology of meditative states: Introducing temporal experience tracing to capture subjective experience states and their neural correlates (Doctoral dissertation).
Tarailis, P., Koenig, T., Michel, C. M., & Griškova-Bulanova, I. (2024). The functional aspects of resting EEG microstates: a systematic review. Brain topography, 37(2), 181-217.
Yaden, D. B., Haidt, J., Hood Jr, R. W., Vago, D. R., & Newberg, A. B. (2017). The varieties of self-transcendent experience. Review of general psychology, 21(2), 143-160.
02/2026 - ongoing
A HD-EEG study on the effects of high-ventilation breathwork on music perception
Photography by Stefan Hanegraaf
Team
Research
Oliver Durcan, Prof. Tristan Bekinschtein
Operational and Technical
Bianca Mayhew, Oliver Durcan, Shehryar Ahmad, Alejandra Rios, William Russell, Alessandra Denegri
Partners
University of Cambridge, Mastery, MONOM Studios, London Warehouse Events (LWE)
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Background
Does high-ventilation breathwork change how we perceive music? Most breathwork research concentrates on the breathwork period itself. In the project, we were interested in what comes after - how the residual altered state shapes the music experience that follows. Specifically, how dimensions such as flow and oceanic boundlessness shift during music listening in the wake of breathwork-induced, psychedelic-adjacent effects.
The work centres on Jon Hopkins' Embodied Breathing, a 21-minute breathwork practice and sound meditation with guidance from Fearne Cotton, released by Mastery on Houndstooth Records (vinyl only). The piece combines Breath of Fire and Conscious Connected Breathing, followed by a new ambient composition by Hopkins.
Methods
High-density EEG data was collected across two settings. Live at Funkhaus Berlin, during the concert with roughly 1,600 attendees; and privately at MONOM Studios, comparing spatial and stereo mixes. Two advanced breathwork facilitators were recorded across active conditions (full participation) and passive conditions (instructions only, no engagement), yielding music-perception data both with and without preceding breathwork effects.
Alongside EEG, the project used Temporal Experience Tracing (TET), developed by Tristan Bekinschtein and Barbara Jachs at Human Experience Dynamics and the University of Cambridge. Rather than collapsing a temporal experience into a single Likert score, TET captures how experience unfolds dynamically, giving detailed context for identifying key events in the EEG time course.
Next steps
The acquired data is currently undergoing analysis.
Does high-ventilation breathwork change how we perceive music? Most breathwork research concentrates on the breathwork period itself. In the project, we were interested in what comes after - how the residual altered state shapes the music experience that follows. Specifically, how dimensions such as flow and oceanic boundlessness shift during music listening in the wake of breathwork-induced, psychedelic-adjacent effects.
The work centres on Jon Hopkins' Embodied Breathing, a 21-minute breathwork practice and sound meditation with guidance from Fearne Cotton, released by Mastery on Houndstooth Records (vinyl only). The piece combines Breath of Fire and Conscious Connected Breathing, followed by a new ambient composition by Hopkins.
Methods
High-density EEG data was collected across two settings. Live at Funkhaus Berlin, during the concert with roughly 1,600 attendees; and privately at MONOM Studios, comparing spatial and stereo mixes. Two advanced breathwork facilitators were recorded across active conditions (full participation) and passive conditions (instructions only, no engagement), yielding music-perception data both with and without preceding breathwork effects.
Alongside EEG, the project used Temporal Experience Tracing (TET), developed by Tristan Bekinschtein and Barbara Jachs at Human Experience Dynamics and the University of Cambridge. Rather than collapsing a temporal experience into a single Likert score, TET captures how experience unfolds dynamically, giving detailed context for identifying key events in the EEG time course.
Next steps
The acquired data is currently undergoing analysis.
05/2026 - ongoing
A survey on the psychological effects of sustained low-frequency sound
Team
Research
Oliver Durcan, Stefanie Egedy
Partners
Kunstfestspiele Herrenhausen, Disk Agency
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Background
Creative Empirical is investigating the psychological effects of low-frequency sound in collaboration with sound artist Stefanie Edegy. From 23 May to 8 June, B.A.S. is presented at KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen as an outdoor installation in the Herrenhausen Gardens, a 17th-century Baroque garden.
States such as awe, ego dissolution, mystical experience, and relaxation are well documented in research into extreme aesthetic experiences, yet the role of low-frequency sound in producing them remains largely unexamined.
The principal obstacle has been experimental control. In most settings, low frequencies are inseparable from music and other confounding variables. This study addresses that problem through a collaboration with sound artist Stefanie Egedy, whose BODIES AND SUBWOOFERS (B.A.S.) installation provides a well-controlled test case. Egedy works exclusively with subwoofers, designing sound rather than music in the low-frequency range, which isolates low-frequencies as the variable of interest while retaining a naturalistic experiential context.
Methods
The study addresses two questions: what mechanisms shape the experience of low-frequency sound, and whether sustained exposure produces measurable psychological state changes. Pilot data is being collected to characterise the conscious-state profiles associated with prolonged low-frequency sound exposure, with a focus on awe, ego dissolution, mystical experience, and relaxation, alongside measures of expectancy and prior exposure. Visitors to the installation are invited to complete a short survey before and after the experience. No prior knowledge or preparation is required.
By applying validated measures from psychedelic and aesthetic-experience research to the underexplored domain of low-frequency sound, the study aims to establish an evidence base for the effects of LFS on listeners. Further updates will follow.
Creative Empirical is investigating the psychological effects of low-frequency sound in collaboration with sound artist Stefanie Edegy. From 23 May to 8 June, B.A.S. is presented at KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen as an outdoor installation in the Herrenhausen Gardens, a 17th-century Baroque garden.
States such as awe, ego dissolution, mystical experience, and relaxation are well documented in research into extreme aesthetic experiences, yet the role of low-frequency sound in producing them remains largely unexamined.
The principal obstacle has been experimental control. In most settings, low frequencies are inseparable from music and other confounding variables. This study addresses that problem through a collaboration with sound artist Stefanie Egedy, whose BODIES AND SUBWOOFERS (B.A.S.) installation provides a well-controlled test case. Egedy works exclusively with subwoofers, designing sound rather than music in the low-frequency range, which isolates low-frequencies as the variable of interest while retaining a naturalistic experiential context.
Methods
The study addresses two questions: what mechanisms shape the experience of low-frequency sound, and whether sustained exposure produces measurable psychological state changes. Pilot data is being collected to characterise the conscious-state profiles associated with prolonged low-frequency sound exposure, with a focus on awe, ego dissolution, mystical experience, and relaxation, alongside measures of expectancy and prior exposure. Visitors to the installation are invited to complete a short survey before and after the experience. No prior knowledge or preparation is required.
By applying validated measures from psychedelic and aesthetic-experience research to the underexplored domain of low-frequency sound, the study aims to establish an evidence base for the effects of LFS on listeners. Further updates will follow.
10/2025 - ongoing
A survey on mental health in the Indian music industry
Team
Research
Dr George Musgrave, Oliver Durcan, Megha Balani, Kripi Malviya, Senjuti Maitra
Operational and Technical
Shilpi Gupta, Megha Balani, Kripi Malviya, Senjuti Maitra
Partners
Goldsmiths University of London, Global Music Institute, Tavta
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Background
Creative Empirical is leading data analysis for It's Time To Talk, the first ever national mental health survey of India's music industry.
It's Time To Talk is a collaborative research project conducted by the Global Music Institute (India), TATVA (India), Goldsmiths, University of London (UK), and Creative Empirical (UK), with support from partners including the Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS), Women of Music India, Aurora Collective, Hyundai, and Rolling Stone. The study aims to understand the health and wellbeing of people working in India's music industry, fostering new cultures of care and creating tailored forms of support to address industry-specific needs and challenges.
Methods
It’s Time To Talk is a quantitative cross-sectional survey for anyone in the Indian music industry. It is designed to test associations between demographics, industry status, industry-specific experiences and impressions and mental health. Creative Empirical leads on data analysis and statistical reporting of research findings for new industry training materials, industry reports, and peer-reviewed academic publications in global health.
Next steps
The findings will support evidence-based action within the music industry while also contributing to wider academic and policy discussions.
Data acquisition is complete. The data is currently undergoing analysis.
Creative Empirical is leading data analysis for It's Time To Talk, the first ever national mental health survey of India's music industry.
It's Time To Talk is a collaborative research project conducted by the Global Music Institute (India), TATVA (India), Goldsmiths, University of London (UK), and Creative Empirical (UK), with support from partners including the Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS), Women of Music India, Aurora Collective, Hyundai, and Rolling Stone. The study aims to understand the health and wellbeing of people working in India's music industry, fostering new cultures of care and creating tailored forms of support to address industry-specific needs and challenges.
Methods
It’s Time To Talk is a quantitative cross-sectional survey for anyone in the Indian music industry. It is designed to test associations between demographics, industry status, industry-specific experiences and impressions and mental health. Creative Empirical leads on data analysis and statistical reporting of research findings for new industry training materials, industry reports, and peer-reviewed academic publications in global health.
Next steps
The findings will support evidence-based action within the music industry while also contributing to wider academic and policy discussions.
Data acquisition is complete. The data is currently undergoing analysis.
10/2025 - ongoing
A survey on the psychological impact of the 2025 SET Woolwich studio closure
Team
Research
Oliver Durcan, Sven Mündner, Roland Fischer, William Winchester
Partners
SET, Beispiel
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Background
In August 2025, members of SET Woolwich were given two months' notice that their studios would close. SET is an artist-led organisation that runs several studio centres across London. The Woolwich site, which opened in January 2021 in Riverside House spanned 140,000 square feet across roughly fifteen floors, housing almost 300 artist workspaces and over 600 artists at its peak.
Studio rents began at £0.90 per square foot per calendar month, fully inclusive of utilities, business rates and broadband, and rose to £1.10 in later years - between £10.80 and £13.20 per square foot per year. For comparison, Acme Studios, the largest provider of affordable artist studios in England, supported 853 artists across fifteen buildings at an average inclusive rent of £13.76 per square foot per year in 2023 (Acme Studios, 2023). Forma, another London-based provider, let studios at £22 per square foot per year. Open-market commercial workspace in inner south-east London ranges higher again.
SET Woolwich was the most affordable artist studio provision in London during its operating life: even at its highest rate, it sat below the Acme average. Many of the artists who held studios there could not hold studios in London at any other price point. Therefore, the closure announcement did not represent only the loss of a particular workspace; it represented, for a substantial number of those affected, a question about whether they could continue their practice in the city at all.
This report examines the wellbeing impact of that announcement on SET Woolwich members. It draws on a survey of 167 members, administered shortly after the announcement, using the WHO-5 Well-Being Index (Topp et al., 2015) as its primary outcome measure, alongside questions about how the studios and local surroundings were used by members.
Next Steps
The data acquisition and analysis are complete. The results are currently being written up.
In August 2025, members of SET Woolwich were given two months' notice that their studios would close. SET is an artist-led organisation that runs several studio centres across London. The Woolwich site, which opened in January 2021 in Riverside House spanned 140,000 square feet across roughly fifteen floors, housing almost 300 artist workspaces and over 600 artists at its peak.
Studio rents began at £0.90 per square foot per calendar month, fully inclusive of utilities, business rates and broadband, and rose to £1.10 in later years - between £10.80 and £13.20 per square foot per year. For comparison, Acme Studios, the largest provider of affordable artist studios in England, supported 853 artists across fifteen buildings at an average inclusive rent of £13.76 per square foot per year in 2023 (Acme Studios, 2023). Forma, another London-based provider, let studios at £22 per square foot per year. Open-market commercial workspace in inner south-east London ranges higher again.
SET Woolwich was the most affordable artist studio provision in London during its operating life: even at its highest rate, it sat below the Acme average. Many of the artists who held studios there could not hold studios in London at any other price point. Therefore, the closure announcement did not represent only the loss of a particular workspace; it represented, for a substantial number of those affected, a question about whether they could continue their practice in the city at all.
This report examines the wellbeing impact of that announcement on SET Woolwich members. It draws on a survey of 167 members, administered shortly after the announcement, using the WHO-5 Well-Being Index (Topp et al., 2015) as its primary outcome measure, alongside questions about how the studios and local surroundings were used by members.
Next Steps
The data acquisition and analysis are complete. The results are currently being written up.
01/2025 - 03/2025
An immersive 360° rendition of HAAi’s neural activity during musical performance
Team
Operational and Technical
Oliver Durcan, Callum Pearson, Bianca Mayhew, Dana Leonard
Background
Creative Empirical recorded and transformed HAAi's brain activity into CG visuals for Flow State, a three-minute film directed by Callum Pearson, showcased on Outernet London's immersive 360° display.
Flow State was produced by female-led production company Only Child, in partnership with Youngest Sibling, and female-owned sound and immersive experience company Mastery. It premiered at Outernet on 11 March 2025 and played in the Now Trending building throughout March as part of Outernet's International Women's Day programming.
Diving into the creative mind of musician and producer HAAi, the film visually explores the neuroscience behind music performance, capturing her brain activity in real time as she performed a stripped-back rendition of her single Can't Stand to Lose (released on Mute). Filming inspired Can't Stand to Lose (hard soft rework) by HAAi and Tom VR, released on 11 March 2025 to coincide with the film.
Methods
Creative Empirical recorded EEG data, a technique that measures electrical activity across multiple brain regions, with the goal of capturing the cognitive state of deep focus known as the flow state. The recorded brain data was then translated into visuals by digital artist AMIANGELIKA using TouchDesigner, with VFX by Zero One Creative, resulting in an immersive and hypnotic film experience.
Flow State premiered at Outernet London in March 2025. For more information, visit Outernet London.
Creative Empirical recorded and transformed HAAi's brain activity into CG visuals for Flow State, a three-minute film directed by Callum Pearson, showcased on Outernet London's immersive 360° display.
Flow State was produced by female-led production company Only Child, in partnership with Youngest Sibling, and female-owned sound and immersive experience company Mastery. It premiered at Outernet on 11 March 2025 and played in the Now Trending building throughout March as part of Outernet's International Women's Day programming.
Diving into the creative mind of musician and producer HAAi, the film visually explores the neuroscience behind music performance, capturing her brain activity in real time as she performed a stripped-back rendition of her single Can't Stand to Lose (released on Mute). Filming inspired Can't Stand to Lose (hard soft rework) by HAAi and Tom VR, released on 11 March 2025 to coincide with the film.
Methods
Creative Empirical recorded EEG data, a technique that measures electrical activity across multiple brain regions, with the goal of capturing the cognitive state of deep focus known as the flow state. The recorded brain data was then translated into visuals by digital artist AMIANGELIKA using TouchDesigner, with VFX by Zero One Creative, resulting in an immersive and hypnotic film experience.
Flow State premiered at Outernet London in March 2025. For more information, visit Outernet London.
Creative Empirical partners with creative organisations to generate evidence about psychological impact.
We bring together project-specific teams of leading academics and practitioners to design and deliver cutting-edge research studies that generate robust evidence. Our expertise spans quantitative methodologies (including neural, physiological, moving-image, and large-scale survey approaches).
Founded in 2025 by researcher Oliver Durcan during his PhD, Creative Empirical was created to offer a level of research integrity, precision and expertise rarely found outside academia. Many research practices in the creative industry rely on qualitative or interpretive methods that, while valuable, can struggle to produce consistent, comparable, and bias-resistant data. Our approach uses experimental research design, inferential statistical methods, and advanced machine learning to produce results that are both scientifically robust and practically actionable.
By translating subjective experience into a quantifiable language, we give partners a deeper and more reliable picture of their psychological impact and the psychological landscape they work in. Our research spans the neuroscientific mechanisms underpinning creativity and altered states of consciousness through to the wider effects of arts engagement on wellbeing and public life - enabling organisations to demonstrate impact, inform policy, secure funding, and innovate with confidence.
Company No. 16502201