Make music using your brain waves? At first I thought Thomas Deuel was putting me on. The photo in his grant proposal showed him sitting in a lounge chair with a helmet that looked like something out of a late night sci-fi B movie. Some quick research on Thomas Deuel turned up a bona fide Harvard PHD in Neurobiology, and a student of jazz composition at New England Conservatory. He’s now a neuropsychologist at Swedish Hospital, where he developed a new technology for patients with severe mobility impairment. But could he really do what he claimed? We gave him some funding to find out.

I later attended a live performance of The Encephalophone Ensemble and sure enough, there was Thomas in his lounge chair jamming with his band. He really was making music using his brain waives.

Tech artist Aashish Gadani is currently developing a virtual reality tour of his own body using biofeedback technology. Third Place Technologies produced a three-day campathon in rural Skykomish, Washington for aspiring programmers to hang out and create a “luminous garden” together. Reilly Donavon of Hot Bit Soup LLC is creating a VR experience that allows users to interact with their physical environment. Sound artist Robb Kunz cleverly installed a system of speakers in the rusted ruins of Gas Works Park that recreated the sounds of the gas refinery that once operated there.

These and numerous other projects are funded each year through the 4Culture Tech Specific Program. Tech Specific focuses on reaching designers, tinkerers, fabricators, engineers, software and app developers, kinetic sculpture makers, media-producers, and more. The goal of Tech Specific is to tap into the thriving tech community in our region and engage active, creative individuals who don’t typically see themselves as artists.

Individuals, collaborative teams, and organizations can apply for grants to support creative projects that integrate technology – from analog to digital, low tech to high tech. Tech Specific grants are for innovative projects that feature technology at their heart – manual and mechanical, digital and innovative or anything in between. Whatever you think you can do, or dream you can do, we want to help you to realize your most innovate and creative ideas.

4Culture is the cultural services provider for King County offering grants and services in the arts, public art, heritage and historic preservation.

The deadline for proposals is September 28, 2017. Guidelines for the 2018 program can be found at https://www.4culture.org/grants/tech-specific/