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 as Artist-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 a performer and the modified control panel of a household knitting machine, Rebekka will knit a live-generated pattern visualising the collected biometric data. She will develop the performance in collaboration with dancer/performer Agnetha Jaunich.
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 Fari and Ohme Lab will form an integral element of the research and will further develop the concept of the project.
I 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 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. Her work takes place at the interface between material and digital worlds where she loves to combine electronics and textiles. She uses a hands-on approach to break open black box technologies and empower users in their experience.
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.
