From representation to relationality: Bodies, biosensors and mediated environments

In this article we propose a biorelational framework for performance with biosensors, in which interactions are not based on causality, control, and representation, but rather, manifest through shared awareness and agency across multiple, fluid assemblies of self, other and environment. The transdisciplinary scope of this study traces trajectories from the performing and somatic arts into philosophy, biomedicine, cognitive science and human-computer interaction. A brief survey of common approaches to interaction design with biosensors will contextualize discussion of our current practice-based research and creation project, ‘Choreography and Composition of Internal Time’. In this project, we are examining temporal relationships between physiological processes, such as heart rate and breath, with rhythms in movement, music and mediated environments.