Remembering the Brain Opera
Roughly 25 years ago, when I was an undergraduate at MIT, I was a member of the Brain Opera team at the MIT Media Lab. Specifically, I worked with Ben Denckla to write Rogus McBogus, the MIDI software which the Brain Opera was built on top of.
An archive of the original Brain Opera website still exists, although some of the links are broken. Part of that website is a page of pictures.
The Web has come a long way in the past 25 years, and I thought it would be nice to have a list of those pictures that includes thumbnails. So, here it is:
Teresa clearly winning in a common-room free-for-all versus Ed. |
A classic smirk by Joe Paradiso. |
Maribeth, Sharon, and Maggie, having fun with plastics. |
Ben Denckla, in Barcode heaven. |
Teresa and Tanya, hamming it up during sherry hour. |
Matt and Pete, in a ceremonial toast to Sam Adams. |
Tod, extremely close-up (warning: not for the faint of heart). |
Homework for Tod’s class. |
Matt and his gun. |
Our wacky, first webmaster, Ben Adida |
A beaming Ara Knaian, flush with excitement over the Rhythm Tree pads. |
Joe Paradiso with the synthesizer he built in his basement. |
The Audio Super-Twins, Maribeth and Ed, conferring about special powers. |
A technician from Mystic Scene Shop, putting together the Mind Forest hardware. |
Maggie Orth’s birthday party. |
Well-wishers and onlookers at Maggie’s party. |
Joyously opening up the Yamaha speakers in the Cube. |
Sharon and Ben testing the mini-monitors |
Sharon and Zoe at work. |
Maggie, setting up for Sherry Hour |
Ben and Patrick, the wondertwins of code. |
Ben Denckla, coding away. |
John Yu, close up and in his element. |
More of John Yu in his element. |
Jin Kang at work. |
Jin Kang at play. |
Jin Kang, early for a meeting. |
June and Tod at work during sherry hour. |
Teresa Marrin and Matt Gorbet. |
Maribeth and Teresa. |
Matt in a silly mood. |
Patrick at work. |
Patrick and Ben, in their usual style. |
Patrick and John at work. |
John, at work by himself. |
Pete, kicking back. |
Rolf Rando at work |
Rolf at work 2. |
Rolf at work 3. |
Rolf at work 4. |
Spock working on the Sensor Chair. |
Spock with his scope. |
Spock with his scope, looking serious. |
Joe Paradiso setting up for the gig in London. |
Ed calibrating the Sensor Chair in London, March 1996 |
More calibrations in the chair |
Portal to the Cube, Brain Opera central. |
The Sensor Chair. |
Radar music at 10/10. |
Pictures of the Digital Baton (1/7) |
Pictures of the Digital Baton (2/7) |
Pictures of the Digital Baton (3/7) |
Pictures of the Digital Baton (4/7) |
Pictures of the Digital Baton (5/7) |
Pictures of the Digital Baton (6/7) |
Pictures of the Digital Baton (7/7) |
Maggie Orth and the Digital Baton (1/5) |
Maggie Orth and the Digital Baton (2/5) |
Maggie Orth and the Digital Baton (3/5) |
Maggie Orth and the Digital Baton (4/5) |
Maggie Orth and the Digital Baton (5/5) |
Ara on Holiday |
The Brain Opera Team (1/2) |
The Brain Opera Team (2/2) |
The Rhythm Tree Bags Are Built (1/2) |
The Rhythm Tree Bags Are Built (2/2) |
Tanya and Laura |
The Cube: Hot Staging the Brain |