Life Pulse

Life Pulse registers visitors’ heartbeats to create ever-changing illuminated rhythms and patterns. Life Pulse critiques the relationship between the patient, or client, and the medical institution. When patients visit a doctor or nurse their pulse is recorded. It is at this point that patients surrender their body to the medical professional. This information enters the realm of the medical establishment only to be interpreted by the health professional. Life Pulse with its clean, clinical aesthetic mimics the authority of the medical services. The four columns encourage a moment of encounter where participants reveal their innermost workings. Through the ritualistic process of setting their own heartbeat in light the users conjoin with the sculpture to create a kinetic form, part human, part technological.
Commissioned by Archilab, Orleans in 2004