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The Global Summer School — Dubai Node
For the IaaC Global Summer School Dubai Node this year, neurotechnology- within the context of spatial design- was the central topic, from ideation to execution going though research, design, and prototyping.

In addition to the central topic, new tools and workflows utilizing system thinking and integrated AI were crucial to provide the participants with a toolbox, and a new way of thinking, doing, and looking at things.


Tech Stack
Throughout the workshop, various EEG tech was introduced and tought to the participants Interaxon Muse 2, the g.Tec Unicorn hybrid black, Enophones headphones, and the NPG by upside down labs. Each was used for what it does best, giving participants an array of tools to choose from to develop their concepts.

Hardware Tech-stack
As for the software package, the team has developed a device-agnostic custom tool, to stream data through OSC, which was then used in Unity, TouchDesigner, and other software.

For data processing, minimal applications and streaming, python was used, in addition to cloud services such as hugging face, florafauna, colab, and others.


Software Tech-stack
Collaborative Design Thinking
The cohort, together with the team, worked collaboratively, across teams to implement a clear and well structured workflow, then adapted by the students.

BCI Media Art Studio
Brain-computer interfaces allows a new way of interacting with audio visual, a new interface layer.

With wearables like the Interaxon Muse, the Enophones, the NPG, and other devices- thanks to streaming protocols that allow us to stream brain activity data to creative production software- we are able to connect both.

This studio engages with creating new narratives and audio visual experiences, triggered by brain activity data.

BCI Game Dev Studio
Game engines have been entering the spatial design arena increasingly, for rendering, animation, simulation, and experience.

In parallel, 3d modeling software have become at the core of all spatial design practices

How can we leverage BCI interaction in game engines like Unity, to enable a new workflow and framework weather for design, interaction, and experience?

AI Tools and Workflows for Neuroscience and Spatial Design
A full day workshop at the intersection of AI and Neuroscience, creating a generative methodology based on EEG data that generates 3d environments.

The workshop is aimed at both introducing this intersection, and providing students the skills to generate 3d environments using brain data and code.

The outcome of this workshop is a series of 3d environments that will be used in the collective project development

Participants Projects
The participants produced working prototypes of both BCI games an Interactive media art installations.

Hardware preparation and demo game-play by one of the BCI game dev teams
At the end of the first week, all the teams, from the two research lines presented their group work, focusing on concept development, workflow integration, exploring the tech stack and interaction mechanics, and finally, a working prototype.

First week final presentations
The Signal is the Message [ Collective neuro-responsive media art installation ]
A real-time system for entangled perception and spatial co-authorship

We Are the Interface is a two-room, multi-user neuro-responsive audio visual installation/performance that transforms human perception into a spatial medium. It stages a live experiment in collective cognition and real-time collective authorship, where participants’ brain activity becomes both input and output, forming a loop of cognitive entanglement between brains, machines, and environments.


Full workflow of the installation, between 2 rooms
In Room 1, five participants are wired into a feedback system using EEG devices. Two players engage in brain-controlled games (g.tec Unicorn), generating audiovisual noise. Two others, wearing Muse headsets, respond to those outputs, modulating the visual outcome with their neural activity. A fifth participant, wearing Enophone audio-feedback headphones, moves around the space and listens to the entire cognitive exchange as immersive sound affected by their own brain signals. Every participant is both a producer and a spectator, shaping the system while
being shaped by it.

Data from this entangled loop is streamed via a local router into Room 2, where a shared AI generated 3D point cloud is continuously reshaped by
the real-time neural signals. Visitors in Room 2 wear DIY EEG headsets (NPG), which do not affect the environment but generate a unique
perceptual hashcode documenting that subjective experience in the system. This ‘Sijil” is a list of hashcodes, where visitors’ brain data
becomes an ownership reference number, but only of their own data, their experience.

This project explores a fundamental shift: from architecture as form to architecture as interface. From design as intent, to design as protocol.
From authorship as object, to authorship as neural trace.

We Are the Interface proposes a new kind of spatial IP, one groundednot in ownership of form, but in co-authorship of experience.


Monitor 1 — BCI game dev team in action

Cohort
A mixed cohort of artists, creative technologists, engineers, architects, and designers: Abdul Mateen, Ahmad AlAttar, Dana Kharsa, Dana Otoom, Ghazal Javidan, Jessica Joan Dsilva, Joan D’silva, Lina Kataw, Marah Shahin, Mohamad Al Hamadi, Muhammad Aziz, Nayef AlBastaki, Nazanin Hosseini, Rawan Mohi, Rishti Modi, Sara Kamar, Sarah Omari, Shady Elshafie, Shilpa Elizabeth Kuruvilla, Wafa Al Kathiri.

Team
The team brings well integrated diverse knowledge that span spatial design, neurotechnology, game dev, 3d engines, 3d modelling and design, graphic and presentation setup, new media arts and electronics, data processing and streaming, and finally, generative ai and custom training.


Take-away
The summer school, through 2 weeks, with a cohort of 20 participants, is a milestone bringing neurotechnology to the hands of non-experts, architects, designers, to help strengthen the bidirectional development of both fields mutually, spatial design and neurotechnology.

Highly advanced techniques, technologies, workflows, and production was demonstrated and shared, making this a full scope, hands-on, immersive learning experience.