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Thesis Info
- LABS ID
- 00517
- Thesis Title
- Seeing the Unseen: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's Pulse Based Works
- Author
- Claudia Arozqueta
- E-mail
- carozqueta AT gmail.com
- 2nd Author
- 3rd Author
- Degree
- MA Media Art Histories
- Year
- 2013
- Number of Pages
- 118
- University
- Danube University Krems, Austria
- Thesis Supervisor
- Dr. Susan Ballard
- Supervisor e-mail
- Other Supervisor(s)
- Language(s) of Thesis
- English
- Department / Discipline
- Copyright Ownership
- Claudia Arozqueta
- Languages Familiar to Author
- URL where full thesis can be found
- Keywords
- Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, biometric, pulse, heartbeats, installation
- Abstract: 200-500 words
- Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is a Mexican-Canadian digital artist recognized for creating large-scale theatrical interactive installations for museum and public spaces, as well as small-scale works with custom-made interfaces and digital technologies. Since 2006 this artist has created eight works that require the physiological input (pulse and heartbeats) of the audience in order to be completed. This thesis studies the aforementioned installations as a body of work that share a basic interface with different outcomes in a variety of forms, contents and phenomenological results.
The paper shows how the pulse-based installations and their applications, while innovative in their form and technological infrastructure, are intimately related with a very long history of scientific and artistic experimentation. Four components of the pulse works are unfolded in this study: Light, Body, Space and Time. The different conceptualizations of these elements are analyzed and entwined therefore mapping new narratives and interpretations of Lozano-Hemmer’s artistic production. This study uses a media archaeological approach that seeks to reveal the works as rhizomatic ecosystems that have a variety of connotations that facilitate multiple typological interactions.