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In A Heartbeat
This installation creates music and light sequences based on your heartbeat, magnifying it to epic proportions. Each composition is unique, and driven directly from your heart.The composition changes as it plays, responding to the changes in your heart data.
You place your finger in an EEG fingertip sensor. The software captures your heartbeat data and analyses it to work out your Heart Rate Variability. Your HRV is a strong indicator of the level of stress your are under. If the time between your heartbeats is very metronomic, you are more likely to be stressed. You are preparing for ‘flight’. If the time is more ‘jaunty’, you are probably relaxed.
This installation was commissioned for the entrance hall of a co-working space that prioritised well-being. Tenants and visitors could check their HRV, to check in with their stress levels.
Your heartbeat data is both intimate and sensitive. For example, an insurance company might refuse you life insurance on the grounds of low HRV, as it’s an indicator for future health issues.
Being rewarded for sharing your data is a transaction that we increasingly encounter. And once we have given it away, we can’t always get it back. This installation is designed to be seductive, offering you a unique piece of music contained within your heart data. But who is watching?
Are you happy to expose your heartbeat to the public? Who is collecting your information and what are they doing with it?
Credits:
Commissioned by Uncommon for Uncommon Liverpool St. With thanks to Gal and Tania Adir and Ajay Teli.
Programming by Marcus Lyall and Cecile Lebon
Fabrication by Dave Cranmer (Nervous Squirrel)
Original Soundtrack cereated in collaboration with Richard Norris.
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