Julie Legault: The HeartBeats Watch
Artist(s):
Title:
- The HeartBeats Watch
Exhibition:
Creation Year:
- 2011
Medium:
- Timepiece
Category:
Artist Statement:
Stretching or shrinking hours at the beat of your heart, The HeartBeats Watch is a timepiece in which the duration of time is paced not by seconds but according to the wearer’s heartbeat. Through a heightened awareness of self, The HeartsBeats Watch brings together art and science to reveal emotional complexity of time and the human body. A poetic investigation of the physiology of emotions, health, immortality and control, the watch bridges the gap between society and medical science, invoking a broader cultural perception of life. Through the premise of accessories and jewelry as providers of “superpowers” and the idea of objects of comfort, Julie Legault explores the possible futures of accessories through technology, function, and fantasy, using the premise of technology as magic to combine materials and circuitry, creating wearable wonders. Her current research concerns the relationships that mentally and emotionally disabled individuals have with objects and accessories. Working from the outside in, she hopes not only to understand and improve these relationships and their impact on the individual’s social presence, but also to distill the essence of these relationships to benefit a wider audience, adding some missing magic along the way. To avoid the impending “under the skin” aspect of hybridization, Legault’s work also explores the ethics and obsolescence of consumer culture by providing insights and tools for self-awareness and wonder.
