Previous Human Exploratorium clients and collaborators include:

Our Mission:

Human Exploratorium is a research organization committed to decoding the transformational effects of music and sound on the human body/mind complex using rigorous scientific methodology. 

Who We Are:

We are a small and committed team that works closely with musicians, neuroscientists, physiologists, DJs, psychologists, and software developers to understand, systematize, and share the power of music for the betterment of humanity.

What We Do:

By quantifying and systematizing music’s powerful positive effects using evidence-based, data-driven approaches we are able to create music-based protocols that help bring relief from anxiety, stress, depression, and insomnia, and to increase focus, productivity, and induce flow states. 

By utilizing the latest immersive music technologies such as tactile audio and ambisonic speaker arrays we are discovering new ways in which to modulate mood and increase and optimize human wellness creating a platform on which Full Spectrum Human Thriving can be realized.

Human Exploratorium meets ‘Be Time Practice’ uptown in NYC

Human Exploratorium visited NYC to collaborate on a pop-up multi-sensory music meditation experience at Madison Square Park with Be Time Practice on their architecturally designed mobile meditation tour bus. Attendees were treated to a guided meditation journey using music designed to calm the body and mind and an awe-inspiring light show. The sounds the attendees heard were also literally felt in their bodies via the SubPac wearable tactile audio units, while the visuals were designed to evoke wonder and relaxation. The meditation was mixed live by music producer, technologist, and meditation teacher Darin McFadyen.

Human Exploratorium at USA SyFy Innovation Day

(See main video at top of page). Human Exploratorium was honored to join an extremely talented group of creatives at the USA/ SyFy channel headquarters at the Rockefeller Center in New York to show a new multi-sensory biofeedback experience with the ‘Future of Story Telling’ team. The experience was a culmination of many months of collaboration with Biopac founder and artist Alan Macy, a team of artists and coders from the computational Arts department at York University lead by Mark-David Hosales, and California based artist and coder Alex Stahl. The experience is an example of what we call ‘bio-intelligent media’ – music and art-based experiences that are aware of the participants’ emotional states as they experience them via physiology hardware built into the system. The data from the participants’ physiological markers such as heart rate and breathing rate are then analyzed, interpreted, and fed back into the installation in realtime to give attendees unique insights into themselves and the group response to the calming music program custom-built to relax the body and brain. The physiology data typically shows a slowing down and entraining of the heart rates and breathing rates of the participants, and a synchronizing of hearts and breath over the 15-minute experience. This entrainment phenomenon which normally happens internally and individually at music events and between people who are emotionally connected is then visualized on the screen between the circled participants in real-time for the whole group to see, both individually and collectively.

The Human Exploratorium Team

Darin McFadyen 

Founder | Director of Product 

Darin McFadyen has a deep grounding in music, technology, and wellness. Having enjoyed a long career as an influential Electronic music producer (known to his fans as FreQ Nasty) he has served as a VP of Marketing and Head of Health & Wellness at music tech company SUBPAC and has taught mindfulness and meditation-based wellness strategies around the world for over a decade. His interdisciplinary body of work has, at its core, the conviction that music is a universal instrument of healing, of connection, and a powerful catalyst for personal growth and collective transformation.

Andy Page 

Creative Director – Music

Andy Page is a composer, producer, sound designer, and musician whose approach to his craft is informed by a deep understanding of the interface between art and technology. He has worked with many of the giants of modern cinema including Hans Zimmer (composing additional music and providing sound design on Chris Nolan’s ‘Dunkirk’ and Ron Howard’s ‘Inferno), co-composing with Johnny Marr (The Smiths) and Pharrell Williams on ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ soundtrack, and writing alongside Harry Gregson-Williams on Ridley Scott’s ‘The Martian’. His music production work has shaped the sound of albums by pop artists as diverse as Alanis Morissette, Britney Spears, Bebel Gilberto, Alison Moyet, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. As a live musician, he has performed with Nobel prize winner Kip Thorne, Queen’s Brian May, guitar legend Steve Vai, ‘Yes’ keyboard player Rick Wakeman, and International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield, as well as fulfilling live modular synth and guitar duties for Hans Zimmer’s extensive live world tours. When not living, breathing, and sleeping music Andy uses yoga to explore his long-held fascination with the connection between mind and body, both as a teacher over the past decade and as a practitioner of 20 years.

Tamir Sammy Diab

Creative Director – VR/Immersive Media 

Tamir is a CG Supervisor and Producer who has led award-winning visual effects teams for some of the most technologically forward-thinking and highest-grossing films in cinema history including Avatar, The Hobbit trilogy, The Planet of the Apes trilogy, The Jungle Book, Prometheus, The BFG, Ice Age 2, The Adventures of TinTin, amongst others.  His world-class skills across Unreal Engine, Maya, and other industry-standard immersive media authoring tools are complemented by his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. Digital artforms inspired by cutting-edge science fuel his passion for using the VR/AR/XR space to promote and inspire mental wellness.

In Loving Memory of Gary Heit, Ph.D. M.D.

Gary was a key member of our scientific team. He helped orient our foundational principles and move us toward a scientifically ratified system of frequency-based health products.  Through his boundless enthusiasm, kind and compassionate nature, and vast and expansive knowledge of his field, he made us better at what we do and better people too. He will be greatly missed.

Gary graduated from UCSC and received his Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA and his M.D. from Stanford. Now a distinguished neurosurgeon Gary served as a member of the neurosurgery faculty at Stanford University as director of functional neurosurgery and founded the Functional Neurosurgery Program which specializes in Deep Brain Stimulation as a treatment for chronic pain and movement disorders. He is an adept device designer with a deep knowledge of the underlying theoretical neuroscience mechanism of action, a strong working knowledge of material science, clinical ergonomics, and implementation, as well as extensive experience in market definition, FDA regulatory process, clinical trial design, market, and clinical risk abatement, and overseas market development. Gary is a co-founder of Americare Neurosurgery International, a nonprofit that supports modern neurosurgery in developing countries. Gary sat on the Stanford Bioethics Committee for 8 years, and the Kaiser Bioethics Committee, and contributed to the Oxford Handbook of Neuroethics.

LA Times Festival of Books – ‘Newstory Playground’

It was an honor to participate at the LA Times Festival of Books held at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. We demonstrated our bespoke music composed to be heard by the ears and felt in the body at an immersive music installation in the ‘Newstory Playground’, the exhibition space for new storytelling technologies. Human Exploratorium founder Darin McFadyen also gave a keynote speech on ‘Music & Emotion: Sonic storytelling using Tactile Audio’ at the Annenberg Auditorium. As emergent media technologies develop to engage the senses in novel ways storytellers have an opportunity to share our narratives using new and compelling techniques. As a music producer, Tactile Audio expert, and creative futurist Darin explained why feeling music and sound is important, how Tactile Audio technology works, and its applications for the 21st Century storyteller.

Neuroscience Shows Listening To Music Has Kind Of The Same Effect As Meditation

A new article written by Human Exploratorium’s Darin McFadyen for QZ.com on the parallels in state shift between ‘peak music’ and ‘peak meditation’ experiences. We explored this idea more fully at USA SyFy channel Innovation day via a music-based multi-sensory biofeedback installation in NYC in June. Darin will be leading a 3-day retreat at the Esalen Institute, Big Sur starting March 29 2019 expanding on the philosophy and experience of transformative music and audio protocols using the latest in music technology alongside rare and ancient acoustic instruments. CLICK HERE TO READ IT.

Human Exploratorium + the Flow Genome Project

Immersive Music in the Flow Dojo: We joined best selling authors Jamie Wheal and Steven Kotler for a weekend in the mountains of Colorado with Jamie’s Flow Genome Project to explore Flow and specifically how music can aid in bringing humans into optimal flow states in in daily life. Jamie led an mind and body bending series of workshops based on his latest findings on how to build flow into everyday life as a practice. We were honored to provide both music creation and curation which featured heavily in the culmination evening practices. Watch this space for further collabs with Jamie and the Flow Genome Project.

Human Exploratorium + Ford: House of the Future

We had the privilege of providing a multi-sensory music-based relaxation meditation experience for Ford’s House of the Future exhibition house in Austin Texas alongside the Vox Media team. Creating and curating music that is not only heard but felt via tactile audio units, we were able to bring the invited attendees into states of deep relaxation allowing them to realign, refocus and reset for the evenings activities ahead.

Stay in touch to find out about our Community Meet-ups and Immersive Events: