Research on Biofeedback practices:

David Rosenboom defines Biofeedback in his book ‘Biofeedback and the arts: results of early experiments’ (1975) as the presentation to an organism through “sensory input channel  of information about the state and/or course of change of a biological process in that organism” to find some performance control over the process or for “internal exploration and self-awareness”

I had a look into Paul Granions work which is very interesting then an idea popped into my head. I got a VR headset (phone) for Christmas which costs $15 online, maybe I could turn it into a Paul Granion-esque device.

So I will need to have at least two sensors to collect data from the user then can convert it into something else using Arduino devices. I would like to create an experience inside the headset which closes the user off from the outside world and into the rhythm of there heart beat.

Today in class we looking into Biofeedback Art and after looking at some of the examples in the slides I think I will go down this path for my final data visualisation. I have been wanting to learn how to use Ardiuno for a while but have never tried. I’ve always loved making things but haven’t learnt how to automate or program before. It looks tricky but because the code for this kind of stuff all it take is tinkering.

I have also been inspired after going to a music festival where there were a number of people were wear clothes with LED’s integrated into them. There was someone with an amazing white furry coat which strips of LED’s lining the inside and shining though. Its something I would love to learn how to do. Im not sure how hard it is to do this stuff but its probably a learning curve.

In week 6’s class we were introduced to Processing. As I said in a previous post I have used this software before for an Art project in high school. I used it to data glitch photos. At the time I only had a basic understanding of how it worked but could make glitched images look really cool quite easily. I didn’t really know what I was doing at the time and learnt it all off youtube.

Now i’m back at it and its more frightening than ever. I was always one step behind in the demonstrations but I already had a small understanding of how it worked. With this kind of software I feel like its pretty easy to understand but it would take lots of tinkering especially with the code. I’d like to integrate the processing ‘process’ into my video work so this could be a vial option for my project. Im not sure where to start though especially how the data goes in? i’d probably make some kind of generative art, or maybe something with a live camera?

Im not sure yet but over the next week I should have a better understanding

Our Group; Perception wanted to focus more on the space itself and how the artwork was attracting and enhancing the visitor’s experience. We originally wanted to convey the emotions we felt when visiting the gallery but found with only the five of us that it was hard to get a broad collection of data on different emotions. We then thought that another way to encapsulate the essence of the space was to focus on the senses that the installations activated; sight, touch, sound, taste, smell, vestibular sensation (balance) and proprioception (movement).

We visited the gallery as a group to discuss how we could manage the task and the best way to break it down to collect our data. We then went back individually to take in the installations and record what senses they activated in a data table. We chose a select group of works, installations, video works and sculptures as we felt they were the most engaging with more senses in an objective way, whereas paintings would just engage objectively sight.

We decided cellophane would be an effective way to display our data as the coloured layers represented the overlapping of the senses and how the experience was heightened when multiple senses were engaged. We presented the data in order as though you are moving through the exhibition in order to create a sensory map.

Our data showed that sight was evident in all of the installations whereas smell was only evident in one. If we were to collect the data differently we would effectively take more notice of the installations blended in with the environment. For example, the café and children’s area were both later established as installations, but as it was in an open area we came to the conclusion it wasn’t a part of the gallery.

We chose to represent the data using cellophane layered over each other which changed the opacity of each individual artwork represented if it had more or less senses attached to it. Originally we were going to do the cellophone represented in a box but because of our ability to make it we decided a clearer way to display it would be along a string and that way the class would be able to see how the gallery progressed from one sense ‘theme’ to another. While the final thing didn’t look amazing it still visualised the data in an easy to read way

For the NGV group project we wanted to bring our senses into the communal data so we went through and each documented different parts for the show. It was good but bad doing it this way because you think about different things but it also becomes a chore. We categoriesd the art into 7 senses; Sight, Sound, Touch, Taste, Smell, Balance and Proprioception. Proprioception is the sense used to navigate based on previous experiences. This added another element to the data as most of it was very basic. Touch was a bit wried because traditionally you cant touch artwork but in the triennial its very ambiguous. Initially we were going get teh data by how the artwork made us feel but was too subjective to be accurate. Art is subjective so it would be alright to do as a personal project of course but data is usually seen as something concrete which is why we end for senses

In week 4 as an exercise we captured photos which looked though paper holes. The purpose was to constrain the amount of data we could capture. I started taking photos randomly and after the first few found a common theme. As you might notice from them they all have an intersection/corner point where three lines meet.

When you think about how different the world is with non paper maps it makes everything so much easier and faster. I remember being very young and having to help with directions from the Melways on the way to Saturday sport to the unknown suburbs of Melbourne. It visualised its data on 2d plane then stacked two bibles thick. Now we have 3d phone maps which are good but are they really useful?

Im already learning things ive never thought of before. By collecting the travel data by visualising it on paper i realised that I make 4left turns and 8right turns to get to class every Monday. This data doesn’t really mean anything to me but its become part of  my personal trivia

I also organised my stuff based on its wrapability  so as you can see in the photo my computer would have taken the most amount of surface area and the keys or SD car reader the least. The paper without anythign on it is where my phone would be. I meant to take a photo of all the paper piled up from largest to smallest like a pyramid btu ran out of time / forgot to take a photo of it.

We were asked for a class exercise to look at the contents of/in our bags and make sense of them by finding patterns and arranging them to make sense. The photo is the content of my items and (forgot his name) had. Some groups organised theirs by cost, weight or size. We noticed that the majority of our items were colourless so we put aside the few objects which didn’t fit the criteria and ordered the objects from white to dark, taking into account the shinny or matte textures. It shows to us how we process data and make sense of it. There was no grand narrative made from this, but also points out how lifeless modern design is?¿