Project

aSpire: Breathing in Sync Toward Interpersonal Connectedness

Copyright

Kyung Yun Choi

Kyung Yun Choi

Under the sky of this blue planet, we borrow the air from the Earth and release them again, repurpose and rearrange the element of it. We are breathing the same atoms that Leonardo da Vinci inhaled and exhaled [Stager, Wired, 2014].  When feeling being apart and being isolated, taking a breath might be a way to connects us with others, the nature and also our own self.

aSpire represents one's presence by a tangible form of one's breathing pattern.  We present  the concept of 'Presence of Absence' in a form of a kinetic and interactive installation. The aSpire which is  a clippable pneumatic-tactile feedback device that helps users to regulate their breathing, is hang on a chair. It has three inflatable silicone air pouches in array that mimics the motion of human's breathing and delivers the tactile feeling from it.  When an audience takes a seat on the chair, the aSpire delivers different breathing patterns by varying its air pouch shapes to represent the other audience's existence who were sitting on the same chair. 

Copyright

Kyung Yun Choi

This record and replay process keeps going on and on as people come and go to the installation. We invite audiences to leave their own trace of breathing on the space and to engage with the tactile stimulation from the aSpire while they are sitting on the chair.  Even though the motion of the aSpire varies depending on the breathing patterns of the previous audience, audiences have a freedom of interpreting the experience as being physically and closely with someone whoever they imagine and share their life via virtually breathing together in sync. 



Copyright

Kyung Yun Choi

Copyright

Kyung Yun Choi

Copyright

Kyung Yun Choi

Copyright

Kyung Yun Choi

"We live in an ocean of air like fish in a body of water.  By our breathing we are attuned to our atmosphere. If we inhibit our breathing we isolate ourselves from the medium in which we exist. In all Oriental and mystic philosophies,the breath holds the secret to the highest bliss."-  Alexander Lowen,  The Voice of the Body

This was the part of TMG's Ars Electronica Virtual Gallery Exhibition: 

Research Topics
#art #physiology