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CARDIAC investigated the potential to synchronize heartbeats and question the ways in which biology underpins key areas of social interaction.
The project was a collaboration between molecular biology, painting and computer technology to explore the physiological, aesthetic and social significance of the heart. It focused initially on the individual cardiac muscle cell, the cardiomyocyte. This cell contracts spontaneously and individually. However, when grouped together under the control of the heart's pacemaker, each cardiomyocyte beats in tandem with its neighbour making circulation, and life, possible. Through images, videos and paintings of cardiomyocytes we wanted to investigate the aesthetic importance of these cells at a molecular level. Through the synchronized heartbeats we desired to explore how these cells operate at a social level, engendering social interaction and negotiating relationships between each person and the community in which they live.
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THE CONCEPT Integral to life and to love, the heart is both a vital bodily organ and the seat of human emotion. Beating more than two and a half billion times in an average lifetime, this quadripartite muscle maintains a physical and metaphorical circulation necessary to the individual and to society. 'He has a heart of gold', 'my heart was in my mouth', 'I'm heartbroken': the way we speak about the heart tells a lot about how we feel about each other. Its importance as a physical organ is reflected in the way we use it as a metaphor for human emotion and interaction. The heart's health as a physical organ is also indicative of human development: cardio-vascular disease is most prevalent in wealthy societies. Throughout the history of art, the heart has been represented and evoked to express key human concerns. From William Hogarth's Sigismunda Mourning over the Heart of Guiscardo (1759) to Tracey Moffatt's Heart Attack (1994), the heart has occupied a central place in the history of art.