5 augustus 2023 @ Fax Lab Hasselt 10u-18u & 20-22u
Concept + Artist-Scientist: Stephanie Koziej
Sonification + Co-Creator: Mike Winters
Visual Director + Tech Visionary: Bavo De Kuysscher
Producer + Facilitator: Gust Denteneer
ARTIST STATEMENT
We live in a world of divisions – divisions by gender, sex, race, age, ability, … But then again, we know of rare moments of real and deep connection, beyond binaries, where it seems as if the division between ‘me’ and ‘another’ temporarily disappears. Tender Rhythms proposes that re-imagining a radically different world requires us to shift the focus from divided individuals to those deep intersubjective connections. But how can we give voice to these connections if our language as well as our institutions are obsessed with autonomous individuals, and rigid phallic identity-constructions and binaries? How can we write or talk about the boundary phenomena in-between these binaries? Unlike us – bounded individuals – these connections do not have bodies to communicate. This is where our installations come in, formed on the intersection between the humanities, art, science, and technology.
Tender Rhythms 2.0 is a BCI or Brain-Computer Interface Installation, based on recent neuroscientific research which shows that when people deeply connect with each other, their alpha brain waves synchronize [1]. Our installation invites two participants to sit down in front of each other while wearing EEG-headbands. When touching, engaging in eye contact or kissing, the brain waves between participants start to synchronize. Our headbands measure these synchronizations and translate them into sound and visuals. Practically, this means that without a connection there is no music, but once a connection is established music starts to play, increasing in volume as the connection grows stronger. Additionally, the brain synchronicity also triggers the visuals to change. Without synchronicity, floating rocks are displayed on the walls around you. When connecting, the rocks slowly fuse together and eventually co-create one entity, and colors gradually turn brighter.
Feminist, queer, psychoanalytic, philosophic as well as decolonial theorists [2] claim that Western notions of the Self – as a bounded and sovereign divorced entity – are unable to account for the highly porous and interconnected entity and assemblage we become when we deeply connect with one another. Etymologically, tenderness is derived from the Proto-Indo-European -ten, -tan: “to stretch or to be stretched.” Rethinking individuality and sociality as stretchable entities is at the heart of this installation. Tender Rhythms 2.0 visually represents this intersubjective assemblage or “rhythmic tender third” we co-create when we deeply connect [3] in the form of a pulsating gray cloud-like entity floating above and in-between the participants. The visuals materialize the otherwise ephemeral shattering of the sovereign Self into a tender self, as well as the co-creation of a tender sociality. Aesthetically, we decided to go for an uncanny, abject and un-form like entity, inspired by Deleuze and Guattari’s Body without Organs and Kristeva’s notion of abject reliance [4].
Besides visualization, Tender Rhythms 2.0 also sonifies this rhythmic tender sociality or third. Encouraged by the fact that tenderness has its Proto-Indo-European root in common with words like tune and tone, our installation attributes a central place to music and sonification. Technically, this means that when the participants’ brainwave synchrony exceeds a certain threshold, soft music starts to play. When the synchronicity increases and exceeds a second threshold, this music becomes louder. Our aim here is to follow the insight of many thinkers who point to the rhythm and music-like qualities of tenderness and intersubjective connections [5]. Doing so, we take a literal and artistic approach to Deleuze and Guattari’s claim that engaging in this tender economy of desire is a kind of “becoming-music.” Most importantly, in this artistic way we are able to give voice to the otherwise invisible and so often neglected tender sociality and subjectivity.
By projecting the visuals on the screens around the participants, Tender Rhythms 2.0 wants to bring attention to the importance of the context in which connections take place. Some contexts seem more favorable than others. A Tender Context is required in which both participants feel safe enough to open up and connect with one another. Think of pillow talk moments, where secrets, dreams, traumas and other sincere emotions and affects can be shared — sometimes for the very first time. Without such a context – co-created by the two participants and the space surrounding them – such porous connections feel dangerous, in a world where autonomy and self-sufficiency seem to reign.
Tender Rhythms 2.0 is hosted by Gust and Bavo. It is an ongoing experiment and made possible through an artist residency at Fax.Lab in Hasselt.
Tender Rhythms 2.0 is an elaboration on Tender Rhythms 1.0, the latter formed the artistic chapter of Stephanie Koziej’s doctoral dissertation, Tender Rhythms. Re-Thinking Sexuality, Subjectivity, and Sociality through the Hysteric’s Desire for Tenderness. Tender Rhythms 1.0 was realized by Stephanie Koziej (concept), Mike Winters (code and sonification) and Danny Sabio a.k.a. The Glad Scientist (visuals).
ARTIST BIO’S
Stephanie Koziej, Ph.D. is an artist-researcher and tender activist, working on the intersection of the humanities, arts, and sciences. Currently she is a post-doctoral researcher at The Institute of Philosophy at the KU Leuven and Assistant Professor Philosophy at The School of Social Sciences at UHasselt. Stephanie holds a Ph.D. in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Emory University, and an M.Phil. in Philosophy from the KU Leuven. Her arts based research combines philosophy, feminist, queer, psychoanalytic, and post-colonial theory in tandem with immersive visual and sound installation art, using voice, brainwaves, city noises, her ukulele, and micro-beats. Stephanie is also a singer songwriter. Both her theoretic and artistic work explore the critical and radical potential of the invisible intersubjective tender connections and affects between and beyond individuals, to imagine alternative futurisms.
Bavo De Kuysscher defines himself in keywords: Spatial computing, realtime open-source sustainability. In his spare time he manages Nerdlab and XRT.
Gust Denteneer makes his way in the creative world as a community builder and creative consultant. With his background in science and design, he delves into everything that sparks his curiosity. Along the way he connects people. This way he effortlessly facilitates the cross pollination of knowledge and skills. As an active member of The School and Nerdlab, he co-produces art installations about technology.
R. Michael Winters, Ph.D. is a post-doctoral researcher in brain-interface installation at Microsoft Research, and a research affiliate with the Socioneural Physiology Lab, an intersection of the IU Luddy School of Informatics and Kinsey Institute. In 2020, he graduated with a PhD from Georgia Tech, where he was part of the Brain Music Lab, Sonification Lab and Robotic Musicianship Group. Before that, he received his MA from McGill University in Montréal, QC where he worked at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology CIRMMT and Input Devices and Music Interaction Lab IDMIL. Over the years he has consulted at interned with a variety of industrial research partners including Sennheiser, Microsoft Research, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Hop Labs and the PhET Project. His research develops instruments that support learning, performance and connection through data-driven sound. His research spans behavioral psychology and neurophysiology at the frontiers of audio interaction design (AUX) for mobile brain/body interfaces (MoBI), artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR).
REFERENCES
[1]Yun, K. (2013). On the same wavelength: Face-to-face communication increases interpersonal neural synchronization. In: Annals of Internal Medicine, 158 (6), 5081-5082.
Dikker, S., Montgomery, S. & Tunca, S. (2019) Using Synchrony-Based Neurofeedback in Search of Human Connectedness. In A. Nijholt (Ed), Brain Art Brain-Computer Interfaces for Artistic Expression. (pp.161-206). Cham: Springer.
[2] Irigaray, L. (1985). Speculum of the other Woman. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Bersani, L.& Phillips, A. (2008). Intimacies. Chicago: Chicago Press.
Benjamin, J. (2017). Beyond doer and done to: Recognition Theory, Intersubjectivity and the Third. New York: Routledge.
Sandoval, C. (2000). Methodology of the Oppressed. University of Minnesota Press.
Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism & Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
[3] Stern, J. (1985). The Interpersonal World of the Infant. Mineola, NY: Basic Books.
Benjamin, J. (2017). Beyond doer and done to: Recognition Theory, Intersubjectivity and the Third. New York: Routledge.
[4] Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism & Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Kristeva, J. (2014). “Reliance or Maternal Eroticism”. In: Journal of American Psychoanalysis. March. 69-85.
[5] Irigaray, L. (1985). Speculum of the other Woman. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Bersani, L.& Phillips, A. (2008). Intimacies. Chicago: Chicago Press.
Benjamin, J. (2017). Beyond doer and done to: Recognition Theory, Intersubjectivity and the Third. New York: Routledge.
Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism & Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Stern, J. (1985). The Interpersonal World of the Infant. Mineola, NY: Basic Books.
Trevarthen, C., & Malloch, S. (2010). Communicative Musicality: Exploring the Basis of Human Companionship. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stephanie Koziej, PHD 