Pick Up The Phone And Listen In On Artist Beatie Wolfe’s Brain
Leslie Katz, Senior Contributor
Jan 29, 2025,08:00am EST
What’s it like to step inside someone else’s mind? That’s the question conceptual artist and composer Beatie Wolfe invites visitors to explore with her installation “Imprinting,” a sprawling sonic self-portrait of her brain getting its U.S. debut at Boston’s Museum of Science this week.
The installation features listening stations where participants tune in to “channels” that broadcast Wolfe’s original soundscapes — mosaics of conversations, music, poems and random sounds, each representing different regions of the brain and their respective functions. One station, for example, focuses on the cerebral cortex, which is involved in complex tasks such as reasoning and problem solving, while another highlights Wernicke’s area, considered key to language comprehension.
The channel for the limbic system, a part of the brain that gets activated when we listen to music, plays Wolfe’s own compositions, from her first taped demo as a 9 year old to present songs that lean toward folk and indie rock. For the channel connected to the hippocampus, the brain’s primary memory center, the Anglo-American artist recorded herself reading many hours of old journal entries spanning her adolescence.
“If you were to listen to that, you’d hear essentially someone aging from 11 to 19 — these inner monologues, thoughts, reflections, poems, rants, transmissions, breakdowns, breakthroughs,” Wolfe said over Zoom from London, where she lives when not in Los Angeles. “The way I think about it is if that area of the brain could speak, that’s probably what it would sound like.”
“Imprinting,” which premiered at the 2023 London Design Biennale, opens at the Museum of Science on Thursday and runs through the end of the year. The piece is both deeply personal and universally resonant, offering a window into Wolfe’s inner world while inviting visitors to reflect on their own.
“By creating a sonic brain self-portrait, it’s almost as if you create a way for other people to think what their own sonic self-portrait would be,” Wolfe said. Those unable to attend the exhibit will be able to call in to each listening station by phone using the numbers listed below.
Breaking Down Neuroscience Barriers
The stations connect wall-mounted vintage phones to a retro-futuristic data-encoded aviation cap fitted with eight glass data discs, each tied to audio from a different listening station. The bespoke hat, stored behind glass at one end of the installation, was designed by Mr. Fish, the iconic U.K. fashion brand that dressed David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix and Mick Jagger in the 1970s. Mr. Fish also created a wearable jacket for Wolfe’s 2016 album Montagu Square that let people hear its songs by tapping their phone to fabric embedded with short-range wireless technology.
For each “Imprinting” channel, Wolfe edited hundreds of hours of audio to ensure no listener hears the same sequence twice, and she collaborated with Microsoft Research Labs to encode the vast aural landscapes in the “thinking cap” connected to the phones.
For most people, clinical terms like medial prefrontal cortex won’t immediately evoke the intricacies of emotional regulation and social behavior that that part of the brain influences. The Museum of Science says “Imprinting” transforms these concepts into relatable, sensory experiences.
“The installation breaks down barriers around neuroscience and terms that can be intimidating or sterile by connecting them to our everyday experiences,” James Monroe, the museum’s creative director of programming, said in an email interview. “Our ability to collaborate, the way we communicate and build relationships, our artistry, the moments we hold dear to us throughout our lives… all of these treasured aspects of being human are directly connected first and foremost to our brain, and I think Beatie illustrates this in a singular and profound way through ‘Imprinting.’”
Inspired By An Oliver Sacks Book
Wolfe became fascinated with the mysteries of the brain after reading neurologist Oliver Sacks’ 2007 best-seller Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, which she now calls her favorite book. In it, Sacks investigates the power of music to move and heal us.
“Even if you read a couple of case studies it changes your whole perspective on what music is,” Wolfe said.
When the artist’s father-in-law was diagnosed with dementia, the book’s insights inspired her to see what would happen if she performed music for residents of his Portuguese care home. Standing at the front of the room with her guitar playing original new songs — tunes the residents wouldn’t have recognized, and in English, a language most didn’t speak — she didn’t anticipate much of a reaction.
Instead, “I was seeing people waking up and singing along in their version and clapping,” Wolfe said. “At the end of the performance, the director of the care home said, ‘In the 16 years I’ve been here, this is the best I’ve ever seen the group. This is amazing.’”
That experience led Wolfe to conduct extensive research with Stanford University scientists into music, memory and dementia. “Music is so beyond entertainment,” she said. “It is key to our sentience as human beings in ways we’re only just beginning to understand.”
“Imprinting” is a centerpiece of the Museum of Science’s 2025 offerings related to the theme “Being Human.”
“We will explore all aspects of humanity,” the museum’s Monroe said. “Our brains and bodies, our communities, how technology has impacted and improved our lives, and what is inside that connects us all.”
How To Call Into The Listening Stations Remotely
Here are the numbers you can dial to hear each soundscape in “Imprinting.”
“Conversations” channel (representing Wernicke’s area): 617-589-0001
“Collaborations” channel (representing the medial prefrontal cortex): 617-589-0002
“Inner Self” channel (representing the hippocampus): 617-589-0003
“Outer Self” channel (representing the cerebral cortex): 617-589-0004
“Memory” channel (representing the neocortex): 617-589-0005
“Sounds” channel (representing the primary auditory cortex): 617-589-0006
“Music Rewind” channel (representing the limbic system): 617-589-0007
“Music Forward” channel (representing the limbic system): 617-589-0008
Journalist Leslie Katz, a Forbes contributor since October 2023, covers science