Light Artist Annie Mitchell installing at The Falls of Ohio in Jeffersonville, Indiana, September 2021 // Photo by Bob Hower

Light Artist Annie Mitchell installing at Horse Flats in Pearblossom, California, August 2019

Annie Mitchell is a Light and Sound Artist interested in what drives us as humans, the environments in which we thrive and the human connections we need to flourish.

Leveraging a career in design spanning 2 decades, Annie directed her training in technology and behavioral sciences to create immersive sound and light experiences that actively seek to change the collective tempo through a process that synchronizes human bio-functioning to external stimuli. By slowing the tempo of both the natural world and the audience, Annie hopes to create a meaningful connection between the two.

Driven by research in neuroscience and ecopsychology, the artist looks to science to help her create immersive experiences that provoke a visceral reaction in her audience. Light, sound and environment discreetly work together to slow the perception of time passing and visitors often report that they feel completely free of tension and anxiety during and following the experiences.

Light Artist Annie Mitchell installing at Playa in the Oregon Outback, March 2019

ABOUT ANNIE’S FIBER OPTIC SCULPTURE SERIES

DESIGN AND ENGINEERING

Comprised of more than 47 miles of fine optical fiber strands hand-woven into hundreds of tentacles that vary in diameter and range from 8 to 65 feet in length, Annie’s sculptures explode from her backpack to reach incredible proportions.

Photographer Tom Clancey and Light Artist Annie Mitchell discuss the design of Hyphae in the San Gabriel Mountains

Bringing light to the work is a custom system containing hundreds of LEDs inside small, flexible, lightweight bars. Tentacles sometimes terminate at delicate hand-made fungal sculptures. In most cases, the sculpture drapes over and around existing landscapes so the form and energy of the final piece is entirely dependent on the environment. Along with the tentacles and light source, the Artist carries a surprisingly effective little speaker, a mobile power bank, a timelapse camera, a backup controller and repair supplies. Everything fits into a backpack and liberated from the grid, Annie is able to install in a purely instinctual way.

Audio Brainwave ENTRAINMENT

THE SOUND DESIGN

Along with the visual component, sound therapy in the form of audio brainwave entrainment (synchronization) completes the immersive experience. By slowing the tempos of both the natural world and the audience, Annie hopes to create a meaningful connection between the two.

BRAINWAVES AND YOU

Brainwaves are divided into four main categories: Delta waves, when deep sleep occurs; Theta waves, associated with a state of somnolence and reduced consciousness; Alpha waves, when we are in a state of physical and mental relaxation; and Beta waves, emitted when we are consciously alert, or when we feel agitated or tense.

Brainwave frequencies operate in ranges of cycles per second (Hz) varying from 0.1 (barely alive) to 30 (agitated) depending on what mental state we are in. Brainwave entrainment aims to cause our brainwave frequencies to fall into step with a periodic stimulus having a frequency corresponding to the intended brain-state. In Annie’s case, she wants to induce Alpha -- the meditative state and the method she uses to get you there is tonal in nature.

Widely regarded as the most effective tone-based method of brainwave entrainment, isochronic tones are exceptionally dissociating and have strong hypnotic qualities. Evenly spaced tones which turn on and off quickly, they are an effective entrainment method because they produce very strong cortical responses in the brain. “Isochronic tone stimulation has shown promise as a singular therapeutic modality for treating tension and pain” (Manns, Miralles, & Adrian, 1981).

When using tones for the purpose of entrainment, personal acceptance is an important factor in efficacy making the isolation of nature a particularly effective environment for this kind of therapy. To create the soundscapes, Annie layers oscillating constant, repetitive isochronic tones under a bed of a site-specific ambience sampled during her explorations.

The soundscape from a sculpture I did on the Playa at Summer Lake, Oregon. There is a bed of isochronic tones with layers of sounds sampled from the Playa itself. This was a collaborative piece between myself and Dustin Hamman who was also an Artist in Residence at the Playa.

Cites:

I’m no expert, but these guys are. I have a deep reverence for the work that these Scientists, Researchers and Engineers have done and continue to do in the field of Neuroscience. Thank you!

Response to clicks from the human brain: Some depth electrographic observations. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 12, 479-489. Cripe, F. (1986).

Effects of 18.5 Hz audiovisual stimulation on EEG amplitude at the vertex. Journal of Neurotherapy, 3 (3), 23-27. Gardner, W. & Licklider, J. (1959).

Suppression of pain by sound,Science, 132, 32. Kennerly, R. (2004).

Auditory beats in the brain. Scientific American, X, 94-102. Schermer, R. (1960).

Audio-Visual Entrainment: The Neurobiology of Affective Disorders and Clinical Implications of Audio-Visual Entrainment David Siever, C.E.T., Mind Alive, Inc (2006).

Several references made to the research of Dr. Ir. Stéphane Pigeon, research engineer & sound designer, mynoise.net (2019).