Tracking and using heart rate data in live performance: reflections on ‘The Hairs of Your Head Are Numbered’

Abstract

The space is dark. The audience enters and sits around a small raised stage in the center of the room. Video screens surround the space displaying uplifting slogans. The four performers approach audience members and gently take their hand. They ask if they can take their pulse. With their pulse taken, the audience member is then given a metronome. Their heartbeat per minute is set and the metronome is placed on the stage. The space is silent except for the syncopated ticking of 20 metronomes, the heartbeats of the audience. The audience listens.