Short description of work:

The Culture of Breath is an interactive installation presents the viewer with a visual archaeology of a single bodily gesture. The act of breathing is presented as a series of visual layers: physical, biotic, and psychological.

Entering the installation space, you view a looped video of a woman straining to hold her breath. The video suspends the physical narrative where the fight between voluntary and involuntary breathing is at its height. Viewers that walk close to the contorted mouth discover that they can release the woman from her breathless state. Standing on the white floor mat allows the subject to breathe freely.

The interactive video projection illuminates the installation's second layer, the biological representation of breath. To the left hangs a plexiglass container that houses 108 petri dishes. The dishes contain bacteria and fungus captured from human breath.

To the right hangs a written archive displaying facts about the participants including answers to questions like: "When was the last time you felt breathless?" The looped video of the lungs in distress is thus framed by biological evidence of bacteria multiplying rapidly and by psychological data that indicates that breathlessness is a symptom of being out of control.

Technical information:

The Culture of Breath requires at minimum, a darkened installation space measuring 20 by 10 feet. The looped video runs on a Macintosh computer (requires a machine with a serial port) and when an interactor triggers the sensors (eight 20 inch pressure sensors are placed beneath a floor pad) the video proceeds to the breathing loop. The interactive video loops run in a Director projector. Breath samples are best gathered on site using prefabricated petri dishes filled with nutrient agar, however, artist can ship existing breath samples.

Equipment required: