They Want to Read Your Brain Waves. It's Not Mind Control. It's Art.

He taught himself 3D modeling. She sourced a 1,500-pound tree.

This is what they made.

Voyo Woo spent months searching for a tree.

She combed Facebook groups, called arborists, emailed park departments, even looked into whether it was legal to take a fallen tree from a wildlife preserve (no, it’s not). Eventually, someone said yes.

Getting the tree to ARTS 14C took four men and an overpacked SUV — branches spilling out, her young daughter wedged between them as she rode to school. At school drop-off, a director happened to notice the SUV forest, and her brother, a woodworker, stepped in to help process the tree.

The universe was coming together on behalf of the art.

Promotional image for Head in the Clouds

The tree now lives on the fourth floor of ARTS 14C — surrounded by hand-cut paper flowers, drifting clouds, soft LED light, and a system of 3D-printed bone structures and servo motors that make the entire room breathe in unison.

It is the centerpiece of Head in the Clouds — an immersive installation built around a single idea: that calm is a form of social infrastructure, and that when you help someone truly slow down, everything else — kindness, empathy, connection — has room to grow.

There are two minds behind the work.

Voyo Woo is the artist. She has been cutting paper by hand since childhood.

Matt Yacavone is a mathematician turned self-taught engineer, and has been figuring out how to make her ideas real ever since they met.

Voyo grew up in China, where art wasn’t considered a viable path. She studied journalism, came to the United States on a fellowship, opened an Etsy shop — and watched paper cutting take over anyway.

A workshop at the Smithsonian Institution.

A solo installation at Macy's.

Curatorial studies in New York.

A role at Sotheby's.

The immersive work came later — after three children, years of postpartum depression, and a healing process that became a mission.

The idea at the heart of Head in the Clouds isn’t abstract for her.

It’s personal.

Different iterations of Matt's designs

Matt Yacavone arrived at the work differently. He wasn’t on a healing journey, exactly — but he did want to spend his time making something that mattered.

He has a math degree, a background in computer science, and until recently, a research job in formal verification — the practice of mathematically proving that code has no bugs.

“I found a disconnect between wanting to have a positive impact on the world and what I was doing,” he says. The work wasn’t harmful. It just wasn’t meaningful to him.

He was eventually laid off. Soon after, he enrolled in a summer program at New York University, where he met Voyo.

Since then, he’s been teaching himself, relentlessly, the skills needed to bring her ideas to life: 3D modeling, servo systems, mechanical design, even EEG signal processing.

“I’m always right at the edge of my ability,” he says with a smile.

Voyo and Matt in their Project 14C studio, photo by Megan Maloy

For special guided meditation sessions, visitors wear EEG headbands — technology adapted from clinical brain scans. Four electrodes read electrical activity in the brain, tracking whether the mind is active, settling, or moving into deeper states of calm.

Matt spent months building the algorithm that makes this data usable.

At the end of the session, visitors tap their phones to an NFC-enabled cloud. A report appears: brainwave activity mapped over time, with explanations of what each frequency represents and how the mind moved through the experience.

“Some people’s mental activity just drops off a cliff when they start meditating,” Matt says. “It’s remarkable to see.”

This is not, they are both careful to clarify, mind control.

It’s data — made visible.

Gratitude Dinner, a past collaboration between Matt and Voyo

If you’d like to experience Head in the Clouds, it will be on view during MAYhem — ARTS 14C’s spring showcase, running Mother’s Day weekend, May 8–10.

Three days of performance and exhibition across the building: musical theater, live opera, flamenco, tap, immersive installations, and more.

Moms get in free Sunday. Tickets are donation-based and go towards Hudson Gives, our annual fundraiser.

Want to read more? View the full piece on our Substack. Want to keep up with their work? Head in the Clouds has its own Instagram. Voyo's website and Matt's website are also great ways to stay updated.

Get tickets to MAYhem 14C! (free or with donation)

See you next week!

The Team at 14C

Voyo arrived at ARTS 14C with paper and a vision.

Matt arrived with a math degree — and a lot to figure out.

Together, they leave behind a breathing tree, floating clouds, and the quiet trace of your mind, mapped with light and joy.

If you believe this kind of collaboration deserves space to happen, we invite you to support ARTS 14C.

Donate to ARTS 14C

Want to become a Project 14C resident? Two Special Project applications are currently open: our Teacher Residency and the regular Special Project residency.

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