I worked with textile artists, digital artists and engineers to explore integrating fabric art and interactive projections to create a layered immersive experience. Supported by a team of engineering students from UBC, we prototyped a breath-responsive moving chair with shape-changing water reservoirs. We conducted four workshops and a public exhibit to explore how digital and analogue mediums can be integrated.
Beyond layering digital and analogue mediums, we explored breathing to connect with nature. We explored the material role of our breathing in exchanging particles with other living species to elicit reflection on the interconnectedness with the ecosystem we inhabit. Through these explorations we arrived at an aesthetic direction centred around abstract forms with multiple interpretations and networks of connections that blur the distinction between our internal organs and those of the ecosystem we are a part of.
I lead the research and conceptual aspects of this project, while my colleagues performed the majority of development and took the lead on the aesthetics.
John Desnoyers
Stewart (lead artist)
“Breathing harmonization as a way to connect with human and non-human others”