Project: Couch surfing / Vergence 《感 應》

Students: Louis Erwin Lee, Mauro Arrighi

In Chinese, 《感》 means “ to feel ”; 《應》 means “ to respond”.

Both of the characters are based on the same sign: 《心》 “ heart ”. Three participants will be invited to sit on a customized couch surrounded by the spatial sound interface that generates and synthesizes real-time designed sounds according to their individual heart rate variability. Due to personal perceptual psychology and the autonomic nervous system, the outer sound field can also dynamically influence the participants’ heart beat rate. After several minutes, their heartbeats might be synchronous, or chaotic. This would lead to a different, unexpected emotional and physical condition. This is similar to the way human communities are formed with different ideologies and culture.