Pulse: The Current Beat of the Hirshhorn
On Thursday, Apr. 27, 2019, at the Hirshhorn Gallery, I visited “Pulse,” a temporary exhibit by Montreal-based artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Primarily, the exhibit is made up of three large-scale installations, Pulse Index, Pulse Tank, and Pulse Room. All three utilize the visitor/participant’s heartbeat to create a sort of visual, sensory representation. Pulse Index scans visitor’s fingerprints and visually represents them beating at the participant’s heartbeat, Pulse Tank measures participants’ heartbeats to create ripples in water tanks, and Pulse Room features a room of incandescent light bulbs that brighten and dim to match the visitor’s heartbeats.
At the beginning of the exhibit, there is a brief timeline of other artists who, too, have been fascinated by the heart beat, such as John Lennon and Yoko Ono in their work “Baby’s heartbeat” and Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.” It was a neat representation of human fascination with, well, humans, and it gave context to the work as a whole.
While entering the first portion, Pulse Index, I just, honestly, felt really weird. There was a huge screen of various fingerprints that people had scanned from throughout the day, the screen a variety of different shades of epidermis. Particularly while watching them beat to the rhythm of the participant’s heartbeat, it honestly just freaked me out a little. Additionally, it made me consider how quick I was to give over my fingerprint-- just like many of us are in the ever-present era of the iPhone.
The next room, Pulse Tank, made me feel like a Jedi. The visitor places their hands on these sensors that then allows the water to ripple to the beat of the visitor’s heart. It was really cool to look at, but I think that I was distracted mainly by how I imagined what it would be like to be a water-bender, or something of the sort.
Still filled with surprise at what come next, while still slightly at un-ease, I enter room three, Pulse Room, which at the moment was pitch black. Suddenly, I hear a cacophony or clapping and clattering-esque sounds, and I can tell you right now that I was *not* happy. I have always hated haunted houses and that type of deal, and I assumed that Hemmer had decided to play a dirty trick on us all. My friend, who was with me, quickly realized that it wasn’t part of the installation; museum workers were simply setting up folding chairs for a later exhibit. Whew.
After moving past my initial terror, I moved into the space and marveled at the light bulbs flashing rhythmically. It was pretty beautiful and made me think of the cinematography of an indie film— a sort of wild wonderment.
As a whole, I don’t know if I fully experienced Pulse as it was intended to be because of the folding chair deal, but it certainly gave me some things to think about. I mean, who ever really takes time to consider how how our hearts are involuntarily beating? It’s, like I keep pointing out, plain weird. But, at the same time, this wasn’t an exhibit that blew my mind or left me feeling super existential. I don’t know— Pulse was pretty neat, but experience-wise, I’d give it a 3 out of 5 stars.
At the beginning of the exhibit, there is a brief timeline of other artists who, too, have been fascinated by the heart beat, such as John Lennon and Yoko Ono in their work “Baby’s heartbeat” and Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.” It was a neat representation of human fascination with, well, humans, and it gave context to the work as a whole.
While entering the first portion, Pulse Index, I just, honestly, felt really weird. There was a huge screen of various fingerprints that people had scanned from throughout the day, the screen a variety of different shades of epidermis. Particularly while watching them beat to the rhythm of the participant’s heartbeat, it honestly just freaked me out a little. Additionally, it made me consider how quick I was to give over my fingerprint-- just like many of us are in the ever-present era of the iPhone.
Pulse Index (photo from here).
The next room, Pulse Tank, made me feel like a Jedi. The visitor places their hands on these sensors that then allows the water to ripple to the beat of the visitor’s heart. It was really cool to look at, but I think that I was distracted mainly by how I imagined what it would be like to be a water-bender, or something of the sort.
Pulse Tank (photo from here).
After moving past my initial terror, I moved into the space and marveled at the light bulbs flashing rhythmically. It was pretty beautiful and made me think of the cinematography of an indie film— a sort of wild wonderment.
Pulse Room (from here).
As a whole, I don’t know if I fully experienced Pulse as it was intended to be because of the folding chair deal, but it certainly gave me some things to think about. I mean, who ever really takes time to consider how how our hearts are involuntarily beating? It’s, like I keep pointing out, plain weird. But, at the same time, this wasn’t an exhibit that blew my mind or left me feeling super existential. I don’t know— Pulse was pretty neat, but experience-wise, I’d give it a 3 out of 5 stars.
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