TAKE 3
Interactive Breathing Tool
Take 3 was an installation for Media Spaces MA programme at BTK Berlin. It is a prototype for an interactive visual breathing exercise. The belt around the user’s waist measures their breathing. The user is asked to follow the rounds of pranayama (breathwork techniques). Every correct sequence they successfully follow, will generate a fractal shape in holographic inspired method. Each cycle generates a new and unique fractal. This incentivizes the user to practice correctly and through trial and error, subliminally learn a breathing technique that they can use anywhere, from office desk, to a bus stop, to a park bench.
Controlling our breath is a tool that we can use to reduce our stress. It’s natural, it’s free and it just takes an awareness to tap into it and reap its benefits. We must nourish our bodies with food and water, maintain our physical health through exercise and look after our emotional wellbeing. None of this would be possible without the breath. The quality of our breathing has been completely overlooked in Western society. Culturally, we are not connected to the practices of pranayama unless you are of the few who take up a deep practice in yogic philosophy.
TAKE 3 Poster
Hack into your breath
After exhibiting this prototype to the public, I realised quite quickly that many people are unaware of their shallow breathing, by taking their breaths into their lungs and not deep into their belly. Is this as a result of anxiety? Are we told to hold our stomachs in to appear slimmer and unconsciously adapted a negative breathing habit. Some people breathe from their mouths and not their nose. This was also brought to my own attention when I began to learn about pranayama. There is still so much to learn about the breath, we really understand its capacity in a moment of panic when we are told to ‘take a deep breath and calm down’, it’s this powerful in this condition but what other conditions can we hack into the power of our breath to improve our health? Food for thought…
