Heart Bloom is a participatory live-art installation, which offers the audience a biofeedback experience through mechanical movement, sound, and artistic visualisation. Only when you experience excitement or fear you actually feel your heart beat fast inside our chest. However, without you being aware of it, the heart is continually changing its frequency. Biofeedback is a technique that measures physiological processes, and rapidly gives back the data to the users, helping them to be aware of their physiological conditions. Each heartbeat triggers one movement, creating a line or a dot. The variation of the heart rate is demonstrated by the pen’s behaviour in real time. The overall heart rate variability is reflected by the visual characteristics of the generated drawing on paper. Let the heart lead the brush!

More information at www.heartbloom.nl

Year: 2015
Dimensions: Various dimensions
Technique: interactive multi-media installation
Photography: Bin Yu
Exhibited: Psynapse gallery, Rotterdam, NL (2019)     RIXc, Riga, LV (2018);   Riga Photography Biennial, LV (2018);   Extrapool, Nijmegen, NL (2018);   Wanted Design, New York, USA (2017);   Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven, NL (2016);   Manifeest, Stadsschouwburg Ambsterdam, NL (2016);   Night or the Nerds, Eindhoven, NL (2016);   Designkwartier, Den Haag, NL (2016);   Dubai Design Week, UE (2015)
Publications: Yu, B., Arents, R. Biofeedback Painting: Let the Heart Lead the Brush. Leonardo, In Press (2019);   Rixc.org, 2018 (link);   Yu, B., Arents, R., Funk, M., Hu, J., & Feijs, L., HeartPlotter: Visualizing Bio-data by Drawing on Paper In Proceedings of Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA’16), San Jose, CA, USA (2016);   Fastcompany.com, 2016 (link);   Woesvanhaaften.com, 2016 (link);   Globalgradshow.com, 2015 (link)
Credits: Heart Bloom is a collaboration with Bin Yu and is supported by the DI Group, Industrial Design, TU/e (Loe Feijs, Jun Hu, Mathias Funk) and Creative Industries Fund NL.