Generative biometric environment
An artistic investigation into relational dynamics as compositional material—rendered audible, playable, and inhabitable through a sound environment shaped by collective physiology.
sound that listens back
The work
While contemporary sensing technologies have made individual bodies measurable, they rarely render the subtle structure of relationship perceptible as shared aesthetic experience. Emphonic proposes that collective physiological signals can serve as an access point to relational awareness — not data to visualize, but a living environment to inhabit.
By transforming normally invisible dynamics into an inhabitable sound field, relational structure becomes audible, playable, and inhabitable.
Why listen collectively
Collective experience has historically been structured through narrative, ideology, or choreography. Rarely have we had instruments that allow us to directly perceive the physiological dynamics of relationship itself. Emphonic proposes that these dynamics may constitute a new artistic domain.
By making relational structure perceptible, the work expands the field of what can be explored aesthetically — inviting perceptual expansion rather than optimization. Collective internal dynamics, normally invisible and implicit, become sites of exploration, reflection, and play.
No outcomes are prescribed.
Emphonic is installed within a large, minimally defined room. A circular ring of soft seating establishes shared relational geometry — no front, no stage, no focal screen. An immersive sound field occupies the entire space uniformly, shaped by the group's collective physiological state.
Light modulates almost imperceptibly. Movement is unscripted. Exploration is emergent.
four interrelated processes
Participants wear non-invasive biometric sensors collecting subtle physiological signals — heart rate and its variability, respiration, electrodermal activity, and neural oscillations.
These signals are held collectively, not interpreted individually.
Signals from across the group are combined into a single collective data state.
Group-level dynamics take precedence over individual patterns.
The collective state maps to parameters within a generative sound system.
Changes in tone, density, rhythm, and spatial distribution emerge as the group's shared state shifts.
The system retains memory of prior states.
Each session subtly informs the next — giving the sound field continuity and a capacity to learn without repetition.
Emphonic is in an early development phase — establishing whether a group’s physiological field can become aesthetic material through small-scale experiments rather than public exhibition. The significance of this work does not depend on scale.
Currently in place
A foundational framework defining how biometric sensing, aggregation, and sound generation relate as a unified system — establishing the conditions under which collective states can be held without privileging individual signals.
Early models exploring how subtle physiological signals combine into shared states, emphasizing relational patterns over individual metrics.
Ongoing research into how the system responds over time — thresholds, responsiveness, continuity across sessions.
In development
A modular pipeline for receiving and stabilizing biometric data from non-invasive sensors, prioritizing reliability, privacy, and flexibility.
Early construction of a generative sound system designed to remain responsive without becoming directive.
Conceptual and preparatory work examining how collective states might be expressed sonically and spatially.
Enter the conversation
We seek collaborators — artists, researchers, technologists, and funders — drawn to work at the meeting point of collective experience and emergent technology.
Explore how to collaborate