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Brainball is a game, an art object and Smart studio's first completely hybrid research project. The players move a ball on a table by the sole use of their brainwaves. Encouraging competition through relaxation, the game objective is to score a goal on the opponent's side with the least possible action.

Brainball is a two-player game where relaxation is counterbalanced with the desire to win. The little ball on the game's table is telekinetically controlled through the use of each player's brainwaves. Both a calm state and a stressed state have a direct influence on the match. The player who is most passive can watch the ball roll away towards the opponent's goal and a prospective win.

Brainball is a game that goes against the conventional competitive concept. Instead of activity and adrenalin, it is passivity and calmness that mark the truly successful Brainball player. Brainball is unique amongst machines since it is not controlled by the player's rational and strategic thoughts and decisions. On the contrary, the participants are dependent on their body's own intuitive reactions to the game machine.

At first glance, Brainball seems similar to a traditional two-player game: two people challenges one another and take their respective positions at each end of a table that is marked with two goals. The rest of the game's equipment is more special. Both players wear a strap around their forehead that contains electrodes and is wired up to a biosensor system. This system, that is used to measure the body's biological signals, is fastened to the forehead and registers the electrical activity in the brain - the so called EEG (electroencephalogram).

The brainwaves that move the ball forward, increasing the chance of victory, are called alpha and theta waves. They are generated in the brain when one is calm and relaxed. A considerably stressed player will therefore lose.

Brainball is an exciting and social game but also an interesting tool for learning how to control your mental states. It has been exhibited in as widely different contexts as art and design exhibitions and medical fairs, and is seen as one of the studio's most successful hybrid objects.

Brainball. Photo: Tobias Sjödin. brainball_pose.jpg (4.8 MB)	Brainball. Photo: Tobias Sjödin. brainball_pose2.tif (8.7 MB)	Brainball. Photo: Tobias Sjödin. brainball_pose3.jpg (5.6 MB)
The King of Sweden watching Brainball. Photo: Technicus/ Mathias Lindqvist. high resolution image available by request	Brainball in Budapest. Photo: Loove Broms brainball220072.tif (6.4 MB)	Brainball in Budapest. Photo: Smart studio. brainball2.jpg (1.1 MB)
Brainball at the ICA in London. dscn1002b.jpg (404k)	Brainball. Photo: Pernilla Edholm. oslo7.jpg	Brainball (detail). Photo: Pernilla Edholm. oslo8.jpg
Brainball. Photo: Pernilla Edholm. oslo11.jpg	Brainball in Oslo. Photo: doga. img_1665.jpg

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KEYWORDS
telekinetics · paradox · desire for gain

PEOPLE
smart studio

LINKS
Brainball project

Press images