Description
Pulse Front was a matrix of light over Toronto’s Harbourfront, made with lightbeams from twenty powerful robotic searchlights, entirely controlled by a network of sensors that measured the heart rate of passers-by. Ten metal sculptures detected the pulse of people who held them: the readings were immediately converted into light pulses by the computers and also determined the orientation of the beams. The resulting effect was a visualization of vital signs, arguably our most symbolic biometric, in an urban scale. When no one was participating, the matrix showed the heart rate recordings for the last 10 people who tried the interfaces.

Year of creation
2007
Technique
Heart rate sensors, computers, searchlights, dmx distribution and metal stands
Dimensions
Variable dimensions.

Exhibitions
• Public art installation commissioned by and premiered at LuminaTO. Curated by Greg Burke at the The Power Plant and Co-produced with Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, 2007.

Photos
Click on an image to load a high resolution version

Conroy Badger - Programming
Pierre Fournier, Natalie Bouchard, Matt Biederman, Paul Zingrone, Helder Melo - production support
Westbury National - staging
Presented by TELUS