Deformative Signal | Interactive Performance

Deformative Signal is a collaborative, interdisciplinary project that merges physical movement, biometric sensing, and real-time audio-visual synthesis. The work bridges two contrasting practices: Angeliki’s extreme physical limits and movement, and Vishnoi’s analytical background as a complexity physicist and data artist. Together, they datafy bodily presence by translating movement, posture, and physiological signals into a generative sound and light installation.

Using wearable sensors, Angeliki’s body becomes a live data feed. Vishnoi captures her physical movements through motion sensors, converting movement data into real-time soundscapes and dynamic light responses. A pulse sensor simultaneously captures her heart rate, which also influences the music and controls an analog motor.

Upper-body figure wearing sensors for motion and signal capture

We measure heart rate alongside body movements to datafy physical presence and internal biological rhythm. His analytical framework translates these live biometrics and Angeliki’s extreme contortion dynamics into generative algorithms, turning physical movement and physiological signals into sound, light, and mechanical movement.

An analog motor, controlled by Angeliki’s heart rate, extends the translation of biometric data into physical mechanical movement, creating a direct relationship between her pulse and the movement of the installation.

The result is a real-time datafication of the body where heartbeats and physical movement are synthesized into a tactile, immersive environment of sound, light, and mechanical movement.

Body Motion & Biometrics / Sensor Input
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Datafied Body Signals
Movement | Spatial Geometry | Heart Rate | Contortion Metrics
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Real-Time Translation into Data & Numbers
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Generative Audio & Light Mapping
Heart Rate   -> pulse / sub-bass / tempo & light modulation
Movement     -> melody / pitch shift / spatial sound
Geometry     -> harmony / filter colors / light intensity
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Live Output
Immersive sound and light driven by live biometrics

Keys 1: Neck 2: Left Leg 3: Right Leg 4: Left Arm 5: Right Arm 6: Spine Shift: Amplify R: Reset Mouse: Drag

Explore the physical structure of the body. Click to activate, then drag joints with your mouse to stretch the body, or press and hold keys 1 to 6 to flex individual limbs smoothly. Tap to activate sound, then drag the glowing joints with your finger. Use Random or Spin when you want the body to move on its own.

Angeliki

Angeliki (Sinaloa, Mexico) is an intermedia performance artist and contortionist based in Chicago, IL. Her practice investigates the intersections of the physical body, bodily residue, and real-time technology. Translating interior states of vulnerability, solitude, and spatial presence, she finds inspiration in the overlooked: the hidden, the uncanny, and the unhuman.

Vishnoi

Vishnoi (Lucknow, India) is a complexity physicist and data artist based in Chicago, IL. His practice investigates the intersections of physics, emergent social geometries, and generative art. Translating systems of collective human behavior, he finds inspiration in the simplicity underlying complexity, the mathematical coherence of nature, and the beauty of self-evolving mechanisms.