Monday 17 December 2012

Realize

installation by Stephanie Varsakis

implicit --> explicit
heart-breath connection

interested

excited

calm
It was at the age of15 when for the first time I became conscious of myself as an integrated wholeness in which body and mind are connected.
I experienced this whilst doing sports, when we had to measure our heart beat. As I kept on getting odd numbers I was taken to the nurse, from here I was sent to the cardiologist where I was diagnosed with Arrhythmia. Never before had I experienced this awareness of my heart banging against my chest. From that moment I developed the ability to calm down my heartbeat through breathing. 
During the visit at the doctor’s I was nervous, uncomfortable, but it helped that my mother came along with me. From the moment I started to hear this strange but involving sound of my own heartbeat, whilst at the doctors on the ECG, which is a means to interpret the electrical activity of the heart over a period of time, my mood changed and I felt the atmosphere changing as well. From being nervous and uncomfortable I felt more at ease, as for the first time I could hear and see my heartbeat. I could see the direct connection between body and mind.
My heartbeat changed my immediate environment. The sound of my heartbeat sounded like bubbles, which made me laugh. The atmosphere of the room thus changed from almost utter awkward silence into a room filled with laughter. My heartbeat thus changed the mood in the room and through this experience I came up with the idea of translating my heartbeat into space. With this installation, the rhythm of every individual can create and change the atmosphere of a certain space.

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