Luciana Haill

Luciana Haill is concerned in ‘seeing with eyes closed’ and esoteric ways of accessing ‘The Visionary’. She is currently Artist in residence in the University of Greenwich for Department of Psychology in the UK. Her work traces the convergence of tools, inventions & ideas from early Neuroscience with those of ‘The Beats’ in Paris  – such as the Theta-wave inducing flickering Dreamachine and the pioneering hypermedia tools devised by the symbiont mind of author William Burroughs & artist Brion Gysin. She has connected several times in Deal, Kent with the original photographer of this era Harold Chapman (now in his nineties) for further research. Her research includes training with Dr Stephen Laberge from The Lucidity Institute in Hawaii & Dr Keith Hearne in London who is the UK pioneer responsible for detecting first Lucid Dreaming in the sleep laboratory.

Luciana experienced viral meningitis as a teenager which led to a fascination with the brain. She graduated from the first ever degree in Interactive Art in the UK, led by Roy Ascott, in 1996 and has since gone on to create installations and performances internationally at major venues, including The Royal Academy, The Royal Institution, Watermans Gallery in Kew, The Sage Gateshead, The Waag Society in Amsterdam, CENART in Mexico City & The Kinetica Art Fair in London.

She researches liminal neural correlates and creates stimulating contemporary sensory light and sound entrainment installations expressing the surreal psycho-phenomenological characteristics preceding an Altered State of Consciousness, such as within a vivid/lucid dreaming in her Fine Artworks. She measures brainwaves as the audience are assisted in accessing their unconscious during liminal stages such as meditating and sleeping. Her work focuses on ‘Lucid Dreaming’ and further entraining brainwaves associated with ‘The Hypnagogic’ state experienced as we drift off. This stage is marked by a decrease in Beta and an increase in Theta brainwaves, so she sets about emulating this in fully awake participants who experience her art. Her techniques involve Augmenting Reality, Strobe lights, Neurofeedback with EEG (brainwaves) –  a training process using technology to provide you with more information about what your brain is doing. and interviewing participants about their experiences. 

Website: www.lucianahaill.co.uk

Email: [email protected]