Conscious Breathing Interactive

"Lungs:The Breather" is an interactive art installation that explores the bodily process of breathing. They call also call it an installation environment because the "audience" or participant is immersed in the piece. You are not simply an observer of the piece. I found the video on "MediaArtTube", where there are a few hundred intermedia art projects.

The installation is a 4 person experience where the participant breaths into a mask that senses the air pressure and immediately responds with a sound and video reaction. Each person controls 4 jellyfish, and each jellyfish can interact with the others. As one person’s breath makes the jellyfish react in different ways, they interact with the other people's jellyfish too.

The effect of the piece is that the participant becomes very CONSCIOUS and AWARE of their breathing, which is a very unconscious and automatic bodily function for most people. The participants begin to realize their own identity in a different way, especially when experienced within a collective (with the other jellyfish controlled by other people's breathing).

This sound/visual installation breaks free from the "observer art" that we look at but do not experience fully, and it allows/requires that the observer has a direct experience of the piece, a deeply conscious experience. In my opinion, this is the way I want to push art and music. When you give the opportunity for someone to create, interact or "perform" in any way, especially “non-performers”, they begin to see themselves in a radically different way. This piece, “Lungs: The Breather” is a breath from the newest form of art performance, from several artists who use the lessons from the best teachers. Offer the opportunity for exploration and discovery and step out of the way for your students to experience and learn in their own way. In that way, “Lungs” strikes on a brilliant new application of interactive technology. This use of technology can be utilized for many kinds of direct, hands-on experiences... youth education, interactive entertainment, spiritual experiences... it’s limitless.


-Chase Binnie
MUSM 435