Preparing to have your portrait taken is generally as simple as giving your hair a good brush, maybe adding a touch of makeup and figuring out your best angle.
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But how do you prepare your brain for its Kodak moment?
Digital artist George Khut has just started a residency at the National Portrait Gallery, using the brainwaves of members of the public to create art.
Titled Behind Your Eyes, Between Your Ears, the project explores Khut's fascination with the connections between body, mind and technology.
"We're recording alpha waves, and alpha brain waves are produced when our mind becomes quiet but not asleep. We can record them with the brainwave sensors and then I can create electronic music that's controlled by that change, which I find terribly exciting," Khut said.
"So it's like your brain's operating a mixing desk. I use these crackle noises and you literally make the noise go down by making the noise in your head go down."
Before attaching the device to my head and assuring me he can't read my thoughts, Khut tells me the aim is to relax and achieve "open focus" in my mind.
As a somewhat devoted yogi and meditator, I thought I would have it in the bag. Unfortunately my brain didn't want to play ball.
The crackling, static noise starts instantly, and I set about trying to quiet my mind.
As I focus on relaxing and breathing deeply, the crackling comes and goes in waves, and it is both fascinating and frustrating to realise how difficult it can be to control your brainwaves.
After a while I relax and it starts to feel like the end of a yoga session – albeit one where three people are intently watching me and I have a strange device attached to my head. But the crackling continues.
Finally, the crackling gives way to calm music and gentle bells. I relax into the quiet, mentally congratulating myself on finally achieving "open focus". That thought alone is enough to set it off again, and the crackling returns.
I again think hard about not thinking anything at all, willing the bells to come back.
Khut will be at the National Portrait Gallery from 10am-5pm, Wednesday to Sunday until July 19. While all the participants have been selected, anyone can watch him work and see the brainwave art created.
