Background

Cerebral Organoid is a short HD video by Ian Haig. The specualtive sci-fi video is in the format of a corporate report on "The Cerebral Organoid Research Institute of Advanced Neuro Prosthetics". The CORIANP claims to be undertaking a series of experimental brain implants and bodily corrections to address the issue of ongoing brain rot due to exposure to AI. Shot in various locations including a dissused assylum in central Victoria, the black-and-white imagery depicts the ugly eventuality of AI neuro-research.

Credits

Script, direction, VFX, editing & mix - Ian Haig
Music score - Philip Brophy

2026

Premiere screening - Kino Cinema, Melbourne

Overview

In discussions of the video's project to show a dystopian healthcare scenario while flagrantly denying a private institute's responsibilities, the idea of hospital Muzak was forwarded as being a central atmospheric sound texture for the film. As the visuals for Cerebral Organoid are unremittingly bleak and filthy, the music score is positioned as a series of melodies and arrangements blithely floating throughout the institute's environs.

Technical

The core textural identity for the Cerebral Organoid score comes from a selection of fragments from 6 tracks from Lex Baxter's Jewels of the Sea (1961). This stereo LP is one of his most lush recordings: the whole record sounds like it is submerged in a stereophonic bath of floating strings and tinkling harps. The sample fragments from the record were transposed and transfigured, and put through phasing and EQ effects to accentuate the disorienting lack of gravity the textures eveoked — something envisioned as being akin to the dislocative 'out-of-body' experience of the patients depicted throughout the institue wards and rooms in Cerebral Organoid. Ersatz 'jazzak' themes were composed and developed from the fragments, using limited and simple instrumentation, mostly attempting to emulate 1960s' sound production spatialization and mastering.

From the 6 composed tracks, additional ambient textures were produced by deconstructing the 'jazzak' tracks. These were utilzed by Ian as atmospheres throughout Cerebral Organoid. Ian placed, edited, multi-tracked and mixed all the music themes and their atmospheres for the final video.