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Bio-Medical Composing Machine, 2020–21

Video, audio, medical sensors, electronics; dimensions variable

 

This interactive artwork invites you to connect yourself to medical sensors to measure your heart rate, temperature and blood oxygen levels. The resulting medical data is then used to create your body’s own unique musical composition in real time.

 

The autonomic nervous system undertakes many of our body’s subconscious tasks, such as breathing, and regulating our heart rate and temperature. It is a system that is in constant dialogue with other parts of the body, as well as with the environment around us.

 

This artwork transforms the ‘taking of vital signs’, which is a regular part of medical care, into a personal, embodied, musical experience.

 

Audio Programming: Vic McEwan

Electronics and Programming: Michael Petchkovsky and Vic McEwan

Camera and Video Editing: Martin Fox

Video Lighting Design: Clytie Smith

Medical Instructor: Susan Coulson

Logo Design: Sarah McEwan

Lachrymal Vase, 2021

3-D printing, electronics; 205mm x 105mm x 105mm

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A lachrymal vase is a vessel that was used by those in mourning to collect the tears they shed while grieving. Lachrymal vases have been discovered in Ancient Greek tombs that are over 3,000 years old, often buried with oils and perfumes.

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This is one of two artworks in the exhibition that explore tears. The artwork is activated when a tear shed by a visitor lands on the lachrymal vase and a thoughtful message is whispered.

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Electronics and Programming: Michael Petchkovsky and Vic McEwan

Computer Aided Design: Michael Petchkovsky and Vic McEwan

3D-Printing: Vic McEwan

Facial Nerve Harp, 2019–22

Wood, guitar pegs and strings, 3-D scanning and printing, contact microphone, audio interface, pre-amp, computer; dimensions variable

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Facial Nerve Harp is an interactive artwork that invites gallery visitors to engage with a musical exploration of the facial nerve while creating sonic texture through playing the instrument.

The five strings that stretch across the harp are an anatomical approximation of how the five branches of the facial nerve span across the face. From top to bottom the branches are:

Temporal

Zygomatic

Buccal

Marginal Mandibular

Cervical

 

Damage to these nerves can alter the ability to move muscles in the forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nostrils and lips. This can impact blinking, eye closure, and the ability to smile or to create certain mouth shapes, which can cause issues with eating, drinking and speech.

 

In its representation of the facial nerve, this artwork is ‘giving voice’ to a part of the body that is not often considered yet is so meaningful to the functioning of how we present to and are judged by the world, and of how we express emotion, communicate and eat.

Almost an Embrace​

Documentation coming soon

100 Notions from a Nation of Two​

Documentation coming soon

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