Pas de Deux

2000
Sony's Heart Young Artists Exhibition, Berlin
School of the Art Institute of Chicago Thesis Show
Immedia2002, University of Michigan
Interactive light or sound installation for two participants

Biofeedback is the practice of presenting a people with information about their bodies (such as skin temperature or muscle contractions) in order to encourage changes in the body. By extending the notion of the body to pairs of people, Pas de Deux uses biofeedback to measure and illustrate the tension between two bodies attempting to act in tandem.

Visitors to the gallery are invited to put on wide, Velcro-secured belts, and to sit together on a bench facing a gallery wall, where two sets of concentric circles are projected. The belts contain small, pressure-sensing resistors. As a participant breathes in, change in the circuit's current is detected by an EZIO board, which sends information to a Director program. In Director, two sets of concentric circles (one set corresponding to each belt) are moved up and down in response to the data from the belts. The circle sets are projected in front of the participants. As the circles pass each other, moire patterns form. The patterns get more and more complex as the circles overlap more and more, and then disappear for an instant as the circles match up perfectly.

Projected concentric circles

This project grew out of my interest in making artworks for groups of people: to create pieces that set up a dialogue between viewers, as well as between the viewer and the work. Although both participants' gazes are on the projections, this piece encourages a concentration inward on one's own body, the connection between the pace of the breath compared to the pace of the partners.

I have translated the piece into an audio version, Pas de Deux, redux where the feedback is two tones that rise and lower with the breathing, producing interference beats as the tones approach each other.