short version: 

Synthetic Halo reimagines the halo—not as a religious symbol, but as an interface connecting spirituality, neuroscience, and Korean craft traditions. Developed through meditation research and custom EEG technology, the installation transforms participants’ brain activity into an immersive sound environment, inviting audiences to experience consciousness as a shared, embodied medium.

Longer version: 

Synthetic Halo is an interactive installation that reimagines the halo as a contemporary interface connecting spirituality, technology, and cultural lineage. The project began with the artist’s encounter with a traditional Buddhist wooden halo in her stepfather’s woodcarving studio in South Korea, which led her to research halo iconography, meditation practices, and symbols of transcendence across religions.

Through field research at Woljeoungsa Buddhist temple, the artist learned meditation and recorded brainwave activity using a custom-built EEG sensor. Instead of treating neurodata as objective truth, the project presents brainwaves as poetic traces of inner states: temporary, subjective, and impossible to fully measure. Visitors are invited to meditate while wearing the headset, translating their real-time brain activity into an evolving generative soundscape.

The soundscape incorporates field recordings of temple rituals, wooden instruments, forest environments, and deep listening sessions. The EEG-translated soundscape portrays dreamlike summer moments at Woljeongsa temple and forest. Each participant’s meditation adds new data to a growing, AI-driven collective archive, allowing the installation to evolve over time.

The halo is reconstructed using 3D-scanned and 3D-printed wood-filament components, mirrored glass, custom electronics, and interactive audiovisual systems. It functions as both an instrument and a self-portrait, reflecting hybrid cultural identity, inherited craft, and the ongoing effort to externalize and reinterpret inner experience.

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Synthetic Halo is realized in collaboration with Leila Salvesen (@leilasalvesen neuro researcher), Colette Aliman (@colettealiman soundscape designer), Dan Xu (@xxdanxx_ soundscape AI expert), Dominika Badyla(@d0m4v (creative coder), Marsha van Leersum (@marshavleersum assistant) and Juanita Pineda Oviedo(@lightwaaves project manager)