Kate Pullinger, Stefan Schemat, babel: The Breathing Wall

Artist(s):

• Kate Pullinger
• Stefan Schemat
• babel

Title:

The Breathing Wall

Exhibition:

• SIGGRAPH 2005: Threading Time

Creation Year:

2005

Medium:

Screen-based interactive program

Category:

• Interactive & Monitor-Based

Artist Statement:

The Breathing Wall tells the story of a girl, Lana, communicating with her boyfriend, Michael, through the wall of his prison cell. She is dead; he’s been falsely convicted of her murder. The story is told in parts, alternating between daydreams (which
reside in Flash movies) and night dreams. The night dreams reside within the Hyper Trance Fiction Matrix (HTF), experimental software that allows the story to respond to the listener’s rate of breathing.To experience the piece (which resides on a CD, PC only), users need a headset that includes earphones and a microphone. When the microphone is positioned under the nose, the HTF sections respond to users’ breathing. The goal of these sections is to induce
a hypnotic or meditative state so that users enter the dream. The Breathing Wall was funded by Arts Council England.