Designing Biofeedback Artworks for Relaxation

For the past twelve years I have been exploring the aesthetic and cultural potential of biofeedback interactions as a means for facilitating experience of, and reflection on, the physiological dimensions of our embodiment. Information extracted in real-time from heart rate sensors, relating to specific modes or qualities of engagement and nervous system orientation, modulate the various layers that comprise work's visual and sonic appearance i.e. brightness, size, hue, timbre, pitch and harmonies etc. The biofeedback information displays used in these works need to support modes of interaction in which parasympathetic nervous system activity can be voluntarily increased and sympathetic nervous system activity i.e. stress/excitation responses, are decreased. This paper describes some approaches used in these works to address these competing requirements.