Oliver Durcan

Recording Ruthlss in holographic audio with @monomstudios in Saal 1 @funkhaus_berlin ✨ whilst reading EEG brain data during a 20 minute piano improvisation. @olydurcan investigations 🧪 How else to spend a Sunday in Berlin?

It was a pleasure to attend the Parliamentary Roundtable at the Houses of Parliament; a discussion on “UK Arts & Health: The Time is Now”. Great company from Tristan Bekinschtein and Barbara Jachs from Human Experience Dynamics and the University of Cambridge and @rolandfischerv from @setsetsetsetsetset . The event marked a need for shifting perspectives in the role of the arts in national health strategy and policy. Looking forward to seeing how this important space develops

High-Density EEG @funkhaus_berlin 🪐 Exploring whether high-ventilation breathwork changes music perception 🧠✨ Featuring @mrjonhopkins @maddieashman @leoabrahams Director/Editor @callum_pearsonn Science by @creative.empirical DOP @letmefilmthis Sound Design @romekboyer_sound Breathwork participant @jana.antar.tara A show by mastery & @l_w_e

Does high-ventilation breathwork change how we perceive music? 🧠🎶 Last month I was in Berlin studying the effects of Jon Hopkins’ new piece Embodiment Breathing on music perception — 21 minute breathwork practice and sound meditation with guidance from Fearne Cotton, released by @__mastery on @houndstoothlbl . For breathwork-heads: this combines Breath of Fire and Conscious Connected Breathing, followed by a new ambient composition by Jon. Thanks very much for having us @monomstudios ! 🔸What I was studying 🔸 Most breathwork research focuses on the neuropsychological effects of breathwork itself. But I wanted to know what happens after — how a residual altered state shapes the music experience that follows controlled high-ventilation breathing. Do states like flow and unity shift during music listening once breathwork-induced effects set in? 🔸 Some background 🔸 For the past four years of my PhD, I’ve mainly been trying to understand what causes us to enter flow states — that feeling of losing yourself in the moment while also being hyper-attentive to what you’re doing. Despite what a lot of brands and companies claim, the reality is we don’t yet have reliable evidence about how the brain changes during flow. There is wide agreement on this gap throughout the academic literature. What we do know is that high-ventilation breathwork induces similar states to flow, based on how people vividly describe the experience. So my logic as a researcher is to measure the brain whilst people use these techniques — giving me clues about how observed changes may relate to flow in music and arts engagement more broadly. This research was conducted through my company @creative.empirical , which exists to bring rigorous experimental research sciences into real creative settings — places where I think these states naturally happen. 🔸 What’s next 🔸 Billions of datapoints to work through over the coming months. I’ll be doing this alongside my PhD thesis, which presents new results on flow in piano performance and 2D art-making — subjects very close to my heart that I can’t wait to share. More soon. 🙏

High-Density EEG at @funkhaus.berlin 🎹🧠 During our recent Berlin trip, @olydurcan recorded high-density EEG during a private piano improvisation by @ruthlssmusic on @4DSound with @monomstudios and @__mastery . This session adds a new ecological layer to an ongoing PhD research project. ▪️ The wider research ▪️ As part of his PhD, @olydurcan has recorded EEG from 45 expert pianists performing improvisation and sight-reading in a controlled neuroscience lab. The aim: to understand how flow is represented in the brain — and whether improvisation and sight-reading produce different variants of flow states. Results are due Q3 2026. ▪️ What is flow? ▪️ Flow is a state of deep absorption, effortless attentional control, and intrinsic reward — often described as being “in-the-zone,” where time and self-awareness diminish. ▪️ What made Berlin different? ▪️ With Ruthlss, we measured flow during fully free improvisation inside Saal 1 at Funkhaus — on a Steinway Model D with high density EEG. Unlike the lab study, this was a 20-minute uninterrupted performance in an immersive concert space. ▪️ Sound holograms (Slide 3) ▪️ With @monomstudios , the piano triggered real-time sound holograms circulating across 108 speakers. These spatial cues extend the feedback loop beyond the acoustic piano, potentially shaping how performers enter and sustain flow, and supporting creative ideation. (You can hear elements in the videos — though the physical experience is very different IRL.) ▪️ Measuring flow over time (Slide 5) ▪️ Flow fluctuates — especially across 20 minutes. For this case study, @olydurcan used Temporal Experience Tracing, where the performer maps their experience moment-to-moment. This allows specific periods in the EEG to be analysed, rather than averaging the entire performance into one score. ▪️ Early insights ▪️ 1️⃣ Flow rarely begins immediately — improvisation starts with exploration before shifting into automaticity. 2️⃣ In creative contexts, emotion appears central to getting “lost.” 3️⃣ Anticipating the end of a performance may disrupt flow. Full study results will follow in 2026. 📸 @stefan.g.hanegraaf

Hyperscanning EEG Study at @fabriclondonofficial 🧠 On 10 February 2026, @olydurcan led a team of 10 neuroscience researchers from @goldsmithsuol into @fabriclondonofficial — the first neuroscience study ever conducted inside the venue. The study took place during @__mastery 's Quantum Sound Album Listening event, using fabric's Room 1 Bodykinetic dance floor — speakers embedded in the floor — as participants lay down with eyes closed for the full 71-minute album. The album was released on @houndstoothlbl on 12 February 2026. ▪️ What are we investigating? ▪️ Flow, awe, and social connection are among the most commonly reported experiences inside music venues. But what's the objective evidence for how and why they occur? What changes biologically (in the brain) when these experiences arise? And how can the sorts of experiences that occur in music venues help us better understand the brain in social music contexts? ▪️ How did we measure it? ▪️ We captured 32-channel EEG brain activity from participants at fabric, then brought the same participants into the Goldsmiths University EEG Lab for a private headphone listening session on a separate date. Comparing the two conditions lets us isolate exactly what the venue itself — its vibro-acoustic sound, atmosphere, and social context — contributes to the raw music experience. ▪️ Why does this matter? ▪️ Flow, awe, and social connection are notoriously difficult to induce in sterile lab conditions — yet they arise naturally in spaces like fabric. Music venues are not just the subject of this research; they are what makes it possible. With UK venues under increasing financial pressure, high quality scientific evidence quantifying the experiences they generate has never been more important. What would we stand to lose without them? Study results will be released in March 2026. This pilot marks the launch point for a larger scale study to follow. 📸 @stefan.g.hanegraaf

Testing testing… our research programme on sound-induced altered states of consciousness begins @fabriclondonofficial A team of neuroscientists will be collecting EEG brain data from 15 participants listening to the Quantum Sound x Houndstooth album. Whilst EEG technology captures brain activity with millisecond precision, data quality deteriorates with head movements. The lie down, eyes closed format of Quantum Sound events makes this a perfect setup for capturing neural responses to the album through Fabric Room 1 sound system. Science by: Creative Empirical & Goldsmiths University of London Film by: Callum Pearson Track ID: @manamii.b ‘Sown’ To be continued…

Happy to share my recent publication in Communications Psychology with co-authors Peter Holland and Joydeep Bhattacharya. Abstract: Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of the “flow state” was initially discovered in experts deeply engaged in self-rewarding activities. However, recent neurophysiology research often measures flow in constrained and unfamiliar activities. In this perspective article, we address the challenging yet necessary considerations for studying flow state’s neurophysiology. We aggregate an activity-autonomy framework with several testable hypotheses to induce flow, expanding the traditional “challenge skill balance” paradigm. Further, we review and synthesise the best methodological practices from neurophysiological flow studies into a practical 24-item checklist. This checklist offers detailed guidelines for ensuring consistent reporting, personalising and testing isolated challenge types, factoring in participant skills, motivation, and individual differences, and processing self-report data. We argue for a cohesive approach in neurophysiological studies to capture a consistent representation of flow states. 🔗 in bio