Breathe Kritisk is an interactive installation that gives form to ambiguous control — the fragile negotiation between patients and their biometric data.
Experience of Breathe Kritisk
The machine stands as a two-meter-tall chamber with two air pillows inside. The visitor can inflate and deflate the air pillows through the breathing sensor, which sometimes complies with and other times manipulates the visitor’s breath.
This work aims to provoke visitors to reflect upon control which patients have to share with their body and their body data. It is developed as a part of a design research at IT University of Copenhagen in collaboration with MUNCH museum in Oslo.
Design research to re-examine societal values
This project is inspired by a critique on modern medicine: how patients lost and is still losing control of their bodies to the medical gaze. The work reflects on the traces of the past, that echo into the present healthcare. In particular, it investigates when the medical gaze takes form of biosensors and bounds with technical capacities.
To re-examine societal values around digital body representation, we create an installation that offers an embodied experience where users surrender, lose and fight for control with a physiological sensor. We reflect on the elusive perception of control and trust in objectify truths.
About Piyakorn Koowattanataworn
She currently works as a PhD fellow at IT University of Copenhagen, during which she collaborates with Munch, a world-renowned art museum in Oslo, Norway.