Bodies in Movement Virtual Exhibition
Launching 28 January 2025
IOTA Institute is embarking on a new creative research stream into the interventionist quality of bodies in movement through familiar expressions of dance and performance art. “Interventionist” refers to the performance methods artists use inside and outside the institution of dance, to disrupt and expose existing expectations around embodied movement.
One of the project artists, Amanda Dawn Christie, is expanding her use of EEG sensors, heart rate monitors, and a pelvic biofeedback probe to generate audio and image works. The artist is shifting her focus from electromagnetic waves in outer space, to electrochemical neurotransmissions inside the human body.
Christie has chosen to share her works-in-progress on these research themes in a virtual exhibition which includes two photographic series and a video work. Scroll down to view.
Études corporelles:
visual studies of heavenly and humanly bodies for biometric manipulation
Ideas for this project began germinating more than twenty years ago when the artist was undergoing biofeedback therapy for her pelvic floor muscles, and was confronted with the immense gender bias gaps in medical research when it came to female genitalia. At one point, a urogynecologist suggested the artist have a vestibulectomy (removal of skin from the vulvar vestibule), which had a 77% success rate. In light of the minimal evidence and lack of long term studies on this procedure, the artist opted not to pursue it.
Twenty years later, having discovered a tumour in her left breast, the artist noticed a similarity between the ultrasound images of her breast and radar images of the surface of planet Venus. Christie started comparing other medical images (Ultrasound, MRI, and X-Rays) with even more astronomical images (radio telescope images from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and radar images from the Magellan spacecraft that orbited Venus from 1990-1994). She noticed that once any identifying text was removed, sometimes it was difficult to tell which images were from the inside of her body, and which ones were from outer space. This similarity between the cosmic and the internal, the macro and the micro, continued to call to Christie.
About the Research
This project is the second phase of a larger project involving a wearable device that will employ real time biometric data from EEG, Heartrate, Respiration, Galvanic Skin Response, and Pelvic Floor sensors, to blend astronomical images of celestial bodies with medical images of internal organs.
The first phase of research involved the construction and coding of a prototype with support from IOTA Institute’s Bodies in Movement project. During this phase I was interested in recording choreographies for the autonomic nervous system. Using Erin Gee’s open source BioSynth schematic and coding as a starting point, I built a device that processed full sinus rhythm from a Pulse heart rate sensor, two channels of galvanic skin response for stress levels, and one channel of respiration from a thermistor in a breathing tube. Instead of generating biofeedback music as Gee did with her Biosynth, I used the sensor data to modify various parameters of existing medical and astronomical images.
This second phase, Études Corporelles, involves building the image libraries and experimenting with a variety of blending techniques in order to determine which visual parameters should be controlled by the sensor data in the code.
The third phase will involve experimenting with the prototype and the images to see if this apparatus lends itself to live performance, web streaming, or as a tool to generate images and/or videos that exist as traces and records rather than ephemeral experiences.
Various research themes in this work include: image making with sound waves (ultrasound) and radio waves (radar); the electromagnetic similarities between celestial bodies and humanly bodies; gender bias in medical research; cardiac coherence (breathing and heart rate) and its relationship to solar flares and the Earth’s magnetosphere; and choreography and improvisation for deep tissues and the autonomic nervous system.
Mouth Pieces:
Tongue Tied
Mouth Pieces, is a series of photos and videos that document choreographies for Christie’s tongue, made while she was considering a frenectomy procedure. The choreographies for tongue are playful and comical to watch, while also touching on the significant role our tongues play in the context of accessibility and economics of dental care which is often seen as a luxury in spite of its vital role in communication, nourishment of the body, and sexual expression.
Christie was born tongue tied, and later in life, it was proposed that she undergo a frenectomy to have her tongue freed. Before proceeding with the surgery, she choreographed and recorded performances for her tongue, which she intended to re-perform and record post-surgery. In light of a second opinion, she opted not to have the frenectomy.
Photos and videos of the choreographies for tongue were created during a residency at DAÏMON in 2018, and later reworked as assemblages and studies with the support of the IOTA Institute Bodies in Movement project in 2023.
Tongue Tied: Study No. 1 for Composition in RGB #2
Amanda Dawn Christie
Tongue Tied: Study No. 1 for Composition in RGB #2, 2024
Colour separated HD video documentation of choreographies for tongue
1:12, 16×19 HD video
The choreographies for tongue are playful and comical to watch, while also touching on the significant role our tongues play in the context of accessibility and economics of dental care which is often seen as a luxury in spite of its vital role in communication, nourishment of the body, and sexual expression.
This particular study is a follow up to her 2006 dance film, 3part Harmony: Composition in RGB #1, which involved a bastardized version of the 3-step technicolor process on 16mm film. Tongue Tied: Composition in RGB #2, is an exploration of digital blending modes in choreographies for colour separation, and is scheduled to be released in 2026, exactly 20 years after Composition in RGB #1.
Amanda Dawn Christie
Artist
Amanda Dawn Christie (MFA) is an interdisciplinary new media artist who makes film, installation, performance, and transmission artworks. Her work has been presented on five continents by various galleries, festivals, and broadcasters. Christie is currently based in Montreal, QC.
Artist Website / Spectres of Shortwave / Ghosts in the Air Glow