Pulse: A Raw Bioimmersive Experience

Coauthored by Lennie Zhu and Iain Nash

Concept

To this day, sharing the human experience fully with another individual has not been possible. But can we get closer? We created Pulse as an experiment in engineering human connection by immersing participants in the raw sensory environment of their partner.

Participants enter a dimly lit canopy and guide themselves through the experience using an iPad. Elements of their encounter include lighting, sound, an enclosed space, and guided interpersonal interactions.

The two partners gaze into one another’s eyes for four minutes while listening to each others’ live, synthesized heartbeats.

This interaction engages each participant’s primary senses of sight and sound in transformed representations of their partner’s physical experience, creating a sense of closeness.

We activate the experience using sound — in particular, heartbeats — as they are non-invasive, yet deeply intimate and metaphorically significant.

The piece is further informed by a study by psychologist Arthur Aron, and an article by Mandy Len Catron, who both posit that mutual vulnerability fosters closeness. We therefore introduce sight in the form of physical scrutiny, using Catron’s gazing meditation technique. To determine the right length, we tested 2, 3, and 4 minutes of gazing, landing on 4 minutes as long enough for participants to overcome their initial discomfort and settle into a more meaningful interaction.

This confluence of transposed physical signals and feelings creates a synthetic yet raw environment for connection.

Experience Overview

Our first exhibition took place at a night-long art festival from 9pm — 5am. Forty plus pairs of participants followed the steps below:

Many participants experienced the piece with little to no background on what to expect, and participants told us they were both surprised and moved by the spontaneous intimacy in a festival setting.

This project required a fusion of physical installation design and construction with technical synthesizer design, user experience design and application development. We used earlobe heart rate sensors, control applications for sound and lighting, and a custom web application to collect user contact information. The piece involved four coordinated components described in further detail in a companion article.

Participant reactions

Looking ahead — improvements

From an experience perspective, there were several main opportunities to adjust the installation to make it more impactful.

• Environment: A party-like environment was effective at generating a large number of participants (40+) and made for an interestingly jarring contrast between environments; however, hearing the heartbeats became more difficult. Some people commented that they felt they were not in the right mindset to take part. We also found ourselves managing throngs of overly eager crowds fighting for a turn inside. We suggested queueing, but in the future we could set up an appointment system. We will look for a quieter and more controlled environment for round 2.
• Participant understanding of process: Some participants were unclear on what the installation was until they entered it, and also did not find the external lighting cues that indicated the installation was / was not available for a new pair to enter. Improved signage or participant briefings prior to the experience would solve this.
• Partner selection: We noticed pairs experienced the installation differently depending on whether they were strangers, friends, or romantic partners. We’d like to control for or explore these factors more.
• Additional interactions: We would like to explore other types of sensory interactions between participants and measure which are more impactful.
• Additional biofeedback datapoints: We’d like to also measure datapoints like facial movements, body heat, and not only synthesize heartbeats, but also collect heart rate data for each pair to build a visual map of the participants’ physical experiences.
• Technical setup: From a technical perspective, the installation worked well until people started pulling too hard on wires, disrupting them. This can be solved for by exhibiting in a more controlled environment and converting to a wireless setup.