BEYOND HUMAN

Polar Subwoofer was featured in Beyond Human: Artist–Animal Collaborations, which featured nearly 40 paintings, installations, photographs and audio and video recordings by artists who co-create or investigate art with live animals. This year-long exhibition marked the opening of the newly redesigned and expanded Art & Nature Center of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA.

Polar Subwoofer is an interactive multimedia installation featuring an audio loop of an electronic bass composition written to the tempo of a polar bear’s heart rate during hibernation. Although polar bears are not "true hibernators," they do enter a similar physical state called "carnivore lethargy" where they slow their heart rate to an average of 27 beats per minute or (BPM). This piece employs the heart rate as the backbone, or metronome, for the composition. Born from this natural rhythm, the work evolves to produce an experience that fuses the natural with the technological. When sitting or lying on the subwoofer, the viewer is connected physically as the bass tones migrate through the piece into their body. The work is meant to affect the viewer and bring them into a more relaxed state, much like that of the hibernating polar bear.