The Deconstructed Pulse

"The Deconstructed Pulse" explores the spectrum of female arousal through animations, images and sound sculptures derived from data collected via the Lioness vibrator, a one-of-a-kind research-oriented medical device that digitally documents changes in female physiology. Specifically, the Lioness tracks vaginal and anal contractions, through sexual stimulation, beginning with initial changes in the nervous system than up to and including orgasm. The project intends to demonstrate how emerging scientific methods of data collection and visualization enable one to expose what is invisible – female arousal – and make it explicit and tangible.

These concepts will be explored further in a live performance, scheduled for April 16, in conjunction with the Fusebox Festival. During the performance, 3d-printed devices created by Dr. Nicole Prause, director of the Liberos Center, a biotech company in Los Angeles, will document the artist’s arousal as prompted by engagement with and stimulation by a live audience. The resulting data will be projected, with Dr. Prause offering real-time analysis of the data.

Through the use of reimagined medical diagnostic devices, custom-designed wearable biofeedback devices and data-driven visual imagery, sculpture, and sound, this project aims to transform our sterile output into visual representations creating tangible expressions of our biological data. Performed actions are reimagined and redistributed into new modes of communication. This is part of a series of in-person private and public participatory performances to produce an endless loop of information and data generation. The audiences and the artist, together, become both the stimuli and the performer, taking turns and sharing in the output and input of the performance.

Intimacy, the underlying concept of the project, is crucial to human health. The lack of intimate physical contact for many adults during the COVID-19 pandemic cast the importance of human connections and the pain associated with their loss into sharp relief. Widespread feelings of social isolation, the long-term effects of so-called “touch starvation,” as well as the ethical questions surrounding the digital interface that many have substituted for physical presence, invite us to urgently consider the nature and ethical consequences of touch and its absence. The imprint of this prolonged reevaluation of the joys and sorrows of our body continues to have a profound impact on how we relate to our dearest ones and our communities. This embodied collective experience reinforces our desire to be connected. Moreover, it embraces new narratives of simulated touch, creating opportunities for in-depth discussions and educational programming to better understand our biosignals and the role of technology in experiencing intimacy.