About the speaker

Dr Shama Rahman is an interdisciplinary artist, neuroscientist, musician and creative technologist whose practice explores creativity, consciousness and emerging technology. With a PhD in the neuroscience and complex systems of musical creativity, she moves between scientific research and artistic practice to investigate how our internal cognitive states can become material for new forms of creative expression, interaction and experience.

She is founder of NeuroCreate, where she has pioneered a neurodesign approach integrating neuroscience, AI, biosensing and human-computer interaction to understand and augment human creativity. Her artistic practice extends this research into brain-mediated immersive installations, performance and digital art, creating responsive systems in which brain and bodily states can shape audiovisual environments and become part of the creative process. 

This inquiry extends across her wider artistic career. As a musician and composer, Shama has pioneered wearable technology in live performance, using gesture to shape sound, visuals and improvisation. As founder and Artistic Director of Jugular Productions, she created interdisciplinary performances, installations and participatory experiences bringing cutting-edge science into dialogue with art, philosophy and culture. 

Across these different contexts, Shama is interested in designing reciprocal relationships between human minds, bodies and technology: not using neuroscience simply as a subject for art, but using scientific knowledge and methods as part of the process through which new creative systems and experiences are conceived. Her interdisciplinary work has been presented at  UN's AI for Good Summit AI Gallery, Ars Electronica, National Gallery X, the Barbican, Southbank Centre, Sadler’s Wells, Science Gallery and Wellcome Collection.