whisper
Performance of the installation whisper at DEAF03.
Thecla Schiphorst and Susan Kozel: whisper
whisper is a participatory public installation based on small wearable devices and intelligent garments that are linked to a network. These affectionate computing devices gather physical data and signals generated by the body, and respond to these. whisper rewrites the body as a networked ecosystem of data flows and information, visualizing the invisible.
Up to six participants may enter the whisper space to place the devices on their skin and put on the intelligent garments. They can then interact with their own body sense and can experience, share, and interpret each other data such as breathing, heartbeat and brainwaves. The participants" proximity, movement and intention are made visible and audible by the network in an intimate and ironic way
whisper is an acronym [wearable, handheld, intimate, sensory, personal, expectant, responsive system], and builds upon physical practices such as movement improvisation, manifesting cultural and scientific theories of embodiment to inform and experiment with similar methodologies in design, engineering and computing science.
