Breathing_Data

“Breathing Data” is based on a self-experiment. The subject of the study is the body –and the mind– of the artist researcher. Over the course of the three-month research project, the test subject performs daily breathing exercises and collects body data using various sensor technologies. Starting point is the assumption that a measurable improvement of body-related data such as heart rate, HRV, breathing rate and quality of sleep occurs through the regular and conscious application of the exercises. The research process is guided by the questions of whether and how daily collection of body data changes one's behavior, whether and how daily practice is reflected in the data, and whether data-based practice fundamentally has more positive or negative effects.

The project involves the specific learning of breathing techniques (pranayama), the scheduled application of these techniques, and the collection and comparison of the data obtained using multiple sensors. Throughout the project, the focus will be on the interaction between the objective data collection and the subjective state of mind identified through introspection. A “dialogue with the data” becomes the basis of a narrative in which objective measurements enter into a dialogue with the notation of subjective experiences, thus vibrating the relationship between perception and measurement, between consciousness and body, between mind and matter.

The project is a collaboration with Dr. Ulrich Ott, Bender Institute of Neuroimaging, Justus Liebig University Gießen, Germany.

Measuring body data with the help of an Oura ring.

Framework

• Development of the exercise program; scope and duration.
• Data collection at the beginning of the project, frequency and scope?
• What specific data will be collected: Blood pressure, heart rate variability, oxygen saturation, etc. Measurement of respiratory volume and respiratory rate, sleep pattern?

The collection and interpretation of data is to take place with the professional support of Dr. Ulrich Ott, Bender Institute of Neuroimaging, Justus Liebig University Gießen, who has written several books on the subject of breathing and is himself a neuroscientist and yoga teacher.

“Art is an activity consisting in producing relationships with the world with the help of signs, forms, actions and objects.” (Relational Aesthetics, Nicolas Bourriaud, 1998, p.107)

“If I don't write them down, things didn't get to their end, they were just lived.” Annie Ernaux