Carving out Creativity
Carving Out Creativity is a multisensory research and art project exploring how creativity connects people through shared presence, physical touch, visual immersion, and neural activity. The work brings together artists, engineers, and scientists to investigate how the creative process can be experienced and understood across distance.
Exploring the Creative Process
The project began with a simple question: In what ways do our creative bodies and brains connect as we are making art or visiting a museum?
Inspired by the Backyard Stone Carvers, a community of sculptors founded by artist Darcy Meeker, the team sought to translate the tactile and communal nature of stone carving into a form that could bridge distant locations.
Researchers and artists from ICAT designed an experiment merging traditional craftsmanship with neuroscience. During collaborative carving sessions, stone carvers wore EEG (Electroencephalography) caps to record their brain activity across 6 distinct segments:
- Pre-activity resting/baseline
- Visualizing
- Synchronized chiseling
- Carving
- Critique
- Post-activity resting/baseline
The recorded EEG data revealed the subtle neural choreography of the mental states that emerge when artists work in flow and in community:
- Stone carving significantly improved mental and social health including positive affect, mindfulness, and social connection
- Stone carving significantly increased beta and gamma activity; this effect was also seen during critique of the art work
- Inter-brain synchrony effects were primarily seen at lower frequency ranges including theta and alpha activity; this may contribute to the socio-emotional benefits seen with stone carving
Collectively, these findings suggest that the artistic practice of stone carving acutely enhances socioemotional mental health and alters brain dynamics. (Neuroscience abstract)
The Installation Experience
The culmination of this process was a networked installation that linked multiple locations across Virginia through real-time, multisensory interaction.
At each installation, visitors encountered a stone sculpture paired with its virtual counterpart in a distant location. Using a haptic interface, participants can feel touches made at another site, while being surrounded by visuals and sound created from the artists’ brain activity during the carving process, offering a glimpse into how minds connect through artmaking.
Dynamic visualizations of the brain data, along with video documentation of the stone carvers and 3-D scans of carved stones are layered to communicate the rich experience of making art in a shared creative setting. Immersive audio fills the space, consisting of brain activity sonification and spatialized sound recordings.
The installation creates a shared environment where physical and digital presence merge — a space where participants experience art as a living, collective act rather than a static object.
Collaboration and Innovation
Through its fusion of scientific inquiry and artistic experimentation, Carving Out Creativity invites people to experience creativity as a tangible link between minds, materials, and communities, and exemplifies Virginia Tech’s commitment to exploring human connection through innovation.
The project team includes:
- Lisa McNair, professor of engineering education, deputy director of ICAT
- Julia Basso, assistant professor of neuroscience and HNFE
- Hiromi Okumura, collegiate assistant professor
- Dushan Boroyevich, professor of electrical and computer engineering
- David Franusich, ICAT multimedia designer
- Tanner Upthegrove, ICAT media engineer
- Atlas Vernier, industrial and systems engineering student
- Linda Correll, backyard stone carver
The installations included sculptures by Milia Boroyevich, Linda Correll, Richard A. Cristin, Allan Linder, Jennifer Lovejoy, Hiromi Okumura, and Tatyana Shramko.
We are grateful to the members of the Backyard Stone Carvers of the New River Valley for their participation in the study.
Virginia Tech’s ICAT and Innovation Campus co-funded the “Bridging Physical Distances” that supported this work. The project was also supported by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and Dave Saunders.
Reports
During the first half of the ICAT SEAD funding period, the team met together for approximately 65 hours, including 6 meetings, 6 data collection sessions that included 21 unique participants, 4 IDPro class presentations, and 3 public outreach events.
Data collection
Stone carvers from the New River Valley participated in stone carving workshops where data was collected in the form of EEG caps recording brain activity, aural recording, video recording, evaluative (survey) data on ways that people engage with the different art forms, and qualitative observational data. A protocol was developed that included setting a baseline through brief guided meditation, synchronized use of tools (Fig. 1), and setting intentions (by placing hands on stone and thinking about what they would work toward while carving).
Student experiential learning
Graduate research assistants (Embodied brain lab) and Undergraduate research assistants (IDPro class) participated in the data collection, learning how to apply EEG caps and monitor recording of brain activity; setting up and monitoring aural recording devices; and abide by IRB human subjects requirements. The graduate students not only gained experience in data collection but also in mentoring undergraduates. The IDPro undergraduate team included 4 students with majors in neuroscience and computational modeling. They presented their work to peers and faculty coaches in a midterm review and in an end-of-semester poster session attended by peers, faculty coaches, Virginia Tech faculty and administrators, and industry professionals.
Public Outreach
The project was introduced to the public at a gallery reception using a video display that ran for two weeks at the beginning of the Fall semester. It was shared as educational outreach at two events, the Roanoke STEAM Day and the Virginia Tech Science Festival.
In addition to engaging participants in the stone carving workshops, other community members attended the sessions to either carve or observe. The Virginia Tech team will continue to engage these stakeholders as we develop the research and creative installations.
Expand Student Experiential Learning
Graduate research assistants (Embodied Brain Lab) and Undergraduate research assistants (IDPro class) will assist in post-production “cleaning” of the EEG data and learn methods of aural and visual data analysis and presentation. The IDPro program is currently recruiting undergraduate students with skills in data visualization, neuroscience, and affinity for artistic expression.
Expand Public Outreach
Additional educational outreach is planned for a Hokie for a Day field trip for fifth graders from Title I schools; for high school students and university community members at ICAT Day; and a presentation at the ICAT SEAD Grants Pecha Kucha event. The culmination of the project will be an immersive “Communicating Across Distances” Installation simultaneously presented at the grand opening of the Innovation Campus building in Alexandria, The Cube at Virginia Tech’s Blacksburg campus, and the Taubman Museum in Roanoke, VA.
Impact
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- Amplifying the Arts
- Bridging Physical Distance
- College of Engineering
- David Franusich
- Department of Human Nutrition, Food, and Exercise
- Dushan Boroyevich
- Engaging Community
- Hiromi Okumura
- ICAT Project
- Julia Basso
- Lisa McNair
- Major SEAD Grant
- Making Big Discoveries with Immersive Technology
- School of Visual Arts
- Tanner Upthegrove
