#1779: “Heartbeat” Immersive, 1-on-1 Biometric Synchronization and Involuntary Collective Agency

I interviewed Fanny Fortage & Harry Clunet-Farlow about Heartbeat – Son Cœur a Trouvé Sa Cadence Dans Le Silence Des Rencontres on Tuesday, September 2, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy.

Here is the story synopsis for Heartbeat – Son Cœur a Trouvé Sa Cadence Dans Le Silence Des Rencontres -- "His heart found its rhythm in the silence of encounters.":

"HeartBeat is an immersive self-performance that explores emotional relationships through the rhythm of the pulse. This installation offers a non- verbal encounter between two strangers, sharing their pulse. This discussion of pulse carries their emotions into a journey — and perhaps, their heartbeats will be in phase."

Here are the contextual domains that are explored:

Commune with another person [7] via your [1] biometric heartbeats [1] that are represented symbolically [9] and artistically [5].

Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity:

1st Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: Cultivates unique Social Dynamics and Eye gazing. You're left to sort of negotiate an encounter with another person. But surprisingly the mode of interaction is completely within this unconscious or sub-symbolic realm where your mental agency is very constrained. It's a lot about the fates of your bodies, and almost by luck whether or not your bodies with synchronize. I suppose there could be elements of skill involved, but overall this is a completely novel type of experience for folks, but also generates a unique encounter with the fellow audience member. No explicit invitation to unpack or debrief the experience, but certainly some audience members connected more afterwards2nd Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: Biometric data that is spatialized over time. This is primarily a physical-based installtion where you point of focus is essentially sitting in a chair and looking at the other attendee. The screen is physically behind you, and so it's almost out of your peripheral vision that you see this undulating blob. The goal is to get your blob to merge with you're audience partner's blob by synchronizing your heart beats.3rd Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: Your non-verbal interactions with another person. But also there is a sort of unconscious collective agency where you have to have your bodies synchronize to achieve the goal of uniting the undulating blobs4th Center of Gravity of Water Element / Emotional Presence: The piece is not r