Behind the scenes of “To Know You By Hand” by Lawrence Kudria
During the residency, their focus was primarily on the implementation of the Polar heart sensors into the participatory VR piece (networking BLE data, adapting the heart sound to incoming BPM). The first test version revealed that limiting the heartbeat sound only to the moment of touching breaks the emotional arc of the experience, as many people simply don’t feel comfortable holding hands with a stranger.
This led them to reevaluate the use of heartbeat and make use of it in a form of spatial sound that gets louder the closer you get to the owner of the heartbeat. The results came to be quite positive, with participants showing more awareness towards each other’s vulnerability.