News
It’s Time To Talk: Mental Health in the Indian Independent Music Industry
Creative Empirical heads data analysis for It’s Time To Talk, the first ever national mental health survey of India’s independent music industry.
It’s Time To Talk is a collaborative research project being conducted by 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 independent music industry, fostering new cultures of care and creating tailored forms of support to address industry-specific needs and challenges.
Creative Empirical will lead on data design, data analysis, and the writing of statistical reports and research findings. Statistical analyses will follow academic standards, providing the foundation for peer-reviewed publications in Global Health as well as industry reports. In this way, the findings will support evidence-based action within the music industry while also contributing to wider academic and policy discussions.
Visit the Global Music Institute for more information.
11 March 2025
Flow State featuring HAAi at Outernet London
Creative Empirical records and transforms HAAi’s brain activity into CG-visuals for Flow State, a film directed by Callum Pearson, showcased at Outernet London’s immersive 360° display
Flow State is a groundbreaking three-minute film by Director Callum Pearson, female-led production company, Only Child in partnership with Youngest Sibling, and female-owned sound and immersive experience company, Mastery. Flow State premieres at Outernet on 11th March and will play in the Now Trending building throughout the month of March, as part of Outernet’s International Women’s Day programming.
Diving deep into the creative mind of renowned musician and producer HAAi, Flow State visually explores the neuroscience behind music performance. The film captures HAAi’s brain activity in real-time as she performs a stripped back rendition of her new single, Can’t Stand to Lose, released on Mute. Filming Flow State inspired the making of Can't Stand to Lose (hard soft rework) by HAAi and Tom VR, released on March 11 to coincide with the film’s release.
Neuroscientist and Director of Creative Empirical, Oliver Durcan, recorded EEG data, a technique that measures electrical activity from 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 captivating visuals by digital artist AMIANGELIKA using TouchDesigner, with VFX by Zero One Creative, resulting in an immersive and hypnotic film experience.
Visit Outernet London for more information.
About
Creative Empirical partners with creative organisations to evidence their 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 and high-quality evaluation frameworks. Our expertise spans quantitative methodologies (including neural, physiological, moving-image, and large-scale survey approaches) and every project is reviewed through university ethics boards at Goldsmiths, University of London or the University of Cambridge (UK). This ensures our work meets the highest academic and ethical standards while remaining directly relevant to the creative industries.
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 evaluation and 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 quantifable language, we give partners a deeper and more reliable picture of their psychological impact. 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