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Breathing_Data

The artistic research project “Breathing Data” is based on a self-experiment. It is not about testing new pharmacological substances as in classical self-experiments in medicine, but about the effect of personalized measurement techniques (bio feedback, body tracking, self-quantification) on individual behavior – and vice versa. The application area of the research is breathing, in particular the basic assumption that conscious application of breathing techniques can directly influence various body functions. 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. Throughout the project, the focus is on the interaction between the objectively collected data and the subjective state of mind determined by interoception. Thus, the focus of attention is the space that opens up between a subjectively and physically felt change and objectively measured medical data. This “dialogue with the data” will generate a narrative in which the distinction between perception and measurement, between consciousness and body, and thus between mind and matter will be set in vibration.

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

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