Biophysical Movement and Emotion as Computational Interfaces (bioMECI) research explores how technology can help us create deeper connections with the world around us, each other, and ourselves by combining the latest advances in bioinformatic sensing technology with physiological awareness techniques. This research challenges notions of disembodiment and technology by engaging somatic awareness practice and computational media to explore questions of human and machine integration through technology-based artworks that critique our techno-scientific world. It is a point of convergence for a number of fields working in the larger domain of artistic and emotive research both internationally and within Canada. bioMECI research focuses on the development of new and novel interfaces that promise to be extremely concise methods to communicate difficult nuance based on the physiological measurement of emotional valence and arousal for the purpose of creating cyber-interoceptive systems in performance and computational art. These metrics are used to advance knowledge in the domain of performance-based computational art and somatic movement. This endeavour involves the development of novel interfaces and assessment techniques that promise to be extremely concise methods for the physiological measurement of emotional valence and arousal. We develop novel ways to use the real-time emotional state of an individual as an interactive interface in co-collaborative experiences. In addition, we explore how technology can facilitate transference, i.e. empathy, between audience and performer, audience with audience, and performer with performer for the purpose of creating cyber-interoceptive systems in performance and computational art.

Built on a ten-year collaboration between Mark-David Hosale (Computational Artist, York University) and Alan Macy (Biomedical Engineer, BIOPAC Systems, Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science and Technology), this project begins from a unique position at the threshold between cultural practice and data collection. It extends the work of the Performance, Art, and Cyber-Interoceptive Systems (PACIS) collective, which included somatic-based performance practitioners able to precisely articulate their moment-to-moment physiological states. By correlating somatic awareness with biophysical sensing, PACIS developed interactive systems linking the body’s physical signals with psychological processes. Previous works such as Burnish (2015–2017), Search for Simurgh (2019–present), and The Body In\Verse (2021) (see Research-Creation) explored these layers through performance, generating a substantial body of knowledge on how to measure, interpret, and respond to human emotions through biophysical signals, and how to access the pre-conscious, embodied dimensions of experience, resulting in a tool called, PACIS Pak.

Using PACIS Pak as a foundation, Hosale and Macy developed The Source, a mature hardware system for amplifying and translating biophysical signals into meaningful forms. Unlike the task-specific and relatively crude tools used in PACIS Pak, The Source was designed as a comprehensive, flexible, and robust platform, integrating multiple sensing modalities into a single system. Development began in 2020, though opportunities for real-world application were constrained by the COVID-19 pandemic. With Sense-Re-Sense, we aim to extend PACIS knowledge, broaden the foundation of the tools already created, and make them publicly accessible for research and creative practice.