Perpetual Thrill

As One is an interactive flame installation in the form of a biofeedback-driven mindfulness game for two. When players’ heart rates synchronize – when their hearts beat as one – the effect goes off, pulsing their shared heartbeat into the sky in flame. Thus, the piece’s mission is to bring two people together, whether they’re out on a playa date, or new friends, or complete strangers from the crowd.

Using biofeedback, it is possible for an otherwise untrained person to vary their heart rate by five to ten percent. The console the players will be standing at can detect a full-range ECG. When a beat is detected, a vibration motor and a pulsing light gives each player real-time feedback at the peak of their own QRS complex. In front of them, sharing a stand with the flame effect, is a display that shows both of their heart rates, and gives feedback when the rates begin to match. Thus, between the biofeedback and the numeric feedback, the players will be able to match their heart rates and unlock a sweet explosion.

The sculpture housing the flame effect heads is an anatomical heart, three feet wide and deep and five feet tall. It is constructed of an inner and outer steel lattice, plus an inner frame to mount the piece to the stand. The sculpture is powder coated heatproof white, to better reflect its illumination – several deep red spotlights, creating an easy landmark. The effect itself has two groups of heads, one roughly occupying the volume of the heart’s ventricles, and the other occupying the aorta.