Depy Antoniou

"Sonic Embodiment" is an interactive sound installation that is activated through the visitor's pulse. By digitizing the pulse, the installation aims to develop questions about the human body and technology. Contemporary artistic practices expand the possibilities of the physical body through technology, explore identity and redefine the concept of the body. This project, using the pulse as a sound source and the sound box in combination with sound effects, creates a connection between the physical body and technology. It invites visitors to manipulate and shape the sound, encouraging a connection with their own body, technology, and space.

Starting from the body as the sensory tool through which we perceive and experience the world, this project seeks to explore its dimensions and boundaries. Digital technology is a fundamental part of the modern experience and reimagining of the body. It allows us to conceive of the body not as something static and uniform, but as mutable and contingent. This leads to postmodern forms of technological embodiment, which are ways in which the techno-body is constructed in contemporary culture.

Don Ihde argues that our relationship with technology is always mediated through our bodies, that our bodies and technologies are not separate entities, but constantly interact in ways that shape our experience of the world. Our relationship with technology is always embodied, and it is necessary to examine the ways in which technology shapes and is shaped by human bodies. Ihde attempts to maintain the distinction between a material body that is not involved in cultural practices and a phantasmagoric body that expands and transforms according to imagination, works, and technologies that are ideological and technological.

The Body as an Organ

The inside of the physical body is a noisy place that produces many frequencies, also beyond human hearing. The internal organs of the body create noise. This fact has inspired the continuous sound work that is reproduced in the space that the installation is placed. This sound is an approach to create the sound of the internal body through an auditory stratification that consists of ambient sounds that are synthesized with analogue and digital synthesizers and recorded white noise frequencies. These sounds are processed through the digital approach of the wall of sound.

The space is proposed as a simulation of the interior of a body, in a dimly lit room where an ambient sound is constantly played through the speakers. The use of sound in the installation creates a sense of presence in the space. The pulse sensor, activated by the contact of the visitor, creates a sense of immediacy and familiarity, as the sound is produced by their own body. Approaching the main installation, a transparent cube is discernible with a surface that invites you to touch it with your finger. There, the pulse sensor is placed, and at the same time, with the sound of the pulses, led lights turn on, giving a sense of movement and change within the space. Right next to it, there is a wooden sound box inside of which there is a piezoelectric microphone connected to an analogue reverb and booster that can be used to reproduce percussion sounds. By creating clanging sounds with reverb, the evolution can be shaped into a composition that reminds elements of electronic music.

The installation consists of an Arduino circuit with three components. Speaker, pulse sensor/ oximeter and led stripes placed in a plexiglass cube with a usb powering from laptop. Next to this there is a wooden cube connected with a piezo microphone, with digital reverb and analogue booster which is placed as an input of a usb audio interface connected to the laptop. The sound comes out of stereo speakers connected also with the Audio Interface. Further the sound of the speaker of the circuit gets enchased with a dynamic microphone input connected to audio interface.

Sonic Embodiment is an aesthetic and technological practice of digitizing the body or a part of its function. It is an immersive environment that highlights the relationship between the body and technology, with the physical body as a mediator. The installation can be activated by one or more individuals. In Sonic Embodiment, my goal is for performance and sound, the physical/material body and the digital, to be combined in a sound installation with the body at the center. The technologically and materially shaped space invites the visitor to engage in a sonic collaboration.