LUNGS [THE BREATHER] - 2009

Lungs [the breather] is an interactive, immersive installation that explores the relationship between the exercise of breathing and the movements of jellyfishes. By amplifying and intensifying the involuntary body action of breathing, it aims to generate consciousness towards the dynamic relationship between the living organisms of the Planet.

The installation consists of a platform filled with tinted water that is used as a video projection screen. Around the pool, four flat stones are used as seats for the participants. Eight speakers spatialize the sound, one in each corner of the room for an immersive sound and one behind each participant for a more intimate experience.

Before entering the installation space, a maximum group of four people receives a mask equipped with a filter. At the center of the dark space, the participants take position on the stones and connect their masks on an individual device equipped with a microphone and a pressure sensor.  As soon as the participants wear the masks their breathing is amplified by a powerful sound, while virtual jellyfishes begin to move, rotate, accelerate, contract and expand, following the respiration patterns of the spectators.

The air pressure sensors detect the inhalation and exhalation movements of the lungs. The software analyses and processes this data, the pace, stopping, acceleration, speed and intensity of movements, as well as an estimate of the volume of air in the lungs of the participants. The result of the data analysis is mapped to the physical behaviour of sixteen virtual jellyfishes (four per person). The system also analyses the sound picked up by the microphones located in each mask, amplifies it and transforms it differently according to the interaction sequences.

 A 10 minutes scenario, including five parts, guides the viewers through different modes of image and sound interaction. Through the experience, a space that implies personal immersion generates physical destabilization by the diffusion of the present bodies.

"Is the nature of our subjectivity fragmented and decentred? Does any specific experience consider the subject as neutral? Centred in ‘a priori’? What kind of subject implies the installation experience? Does installation art call for emancipation? Does it question our sense of stability? How does the subject position himself towards the object, towards the space?"