What connects the human experience and its quantified representation? How do biometric data – and the act of collecting them – influence the body they describe? These questions are at the core of this performance & research project, featuring two performers and a knitting machine.
We’re looking forward to welcoming Rebekka Jochem and Agnetha Jaunich as Artists-in-Residence for 𝘣𝘪𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘬𝘢. Ohme, Pilar & FARI join forces for this project focused on exploring the interactions between biometric technologies and human expression in live performance.
Using a real-time data transfer between sensor technologies measuring the biosignals of the performers and the modified control panel of a household knitting machine, the collected biometric data will be knitted into a live-generated pattern.
The technical expertise provided by the biometrika residency will be critical in realising the technical aspects of collecting, interpreting, and transmitting biometric data to the knitting machine. The collaboration with the scientists and engineers of Ohme Lab and FARI will form an integral element of the research and will further develop the concept of the project.
We look forward to exploring how a performance on biometrics, built around a domestic knitting machine from the 80s, can engage people outside of the classic tech and media art demographic in a conversation about technology.
Rebekka and Agnetha have been working together since 2023. In their interdisciplinary practice, they explore techno-feminist perspectives on bodies, technology and materialities.
Rebekka Jochem is an artist, interaction designer and creative technologist, born in Cologne. After studying Product Design at the Hochschule Wismar in the North of Germany, she followed the Contextual Design Master Programme at Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Since then she has pursued her own artistic practice as well as working as a freelance designer. She loves to combine electronics and textiles, using a hands-on approach to break open black box technologies.
Agnetha Jaunich is a freelance dancer and performance artist. She holds a bachelor’s degree in performative arts from the University of Fine Arts in Braunschweig and is currently pursuing a master’s in scenic research at the Ruhr-University Bochum. Since 2012, her experimental practice has taken shape as independent productions in the performing arts, exploring the convergence of the analog and digital.
Credits
In collaboration with FARI and Pilar.
A cultuurculture project, supported by Communauté française & Vlaamse Gemeenschap.
This research is co-produced by Ohme in the framework of Ohme’s artistic residencies programme,
Funded by Innoviris – the Brussels-Capital Region and Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles.
