Syntonic Refuge

Video by xtine burrough & LabSynthE, CC-BY-ND 4.0

The Other Art Fair, Brooklyn, NY (May 16 - 19, 2024).

Ceremonial Techne, Mamdouha Bobst Gallery, NYU (October 19, 2021 - May 31, 2022).

Digital Frontiers, UT Austin (September 26 - 29, 2019).

BEST Symposium, Frisco, TX (December 5 - 7, 2019).

Holocaust Remembrance Day, UT Dallas (May 2, 2019).

A collaboration by LabSynthe.

Design / Production Team:

xtine burrough
Sean Landers
Murilo Paiva-Homsi
Leticia Ferreira
Sabrina Starnaman
Emma Delight

Ivey Barr and Guest, *Holocaust Remembrance Day*, UT Dallas

Materials:

Woolen quilted shawl and white gloves
PulseSensor Heart-Rate Monitor
Arduino microcontroller

Project Description:

Through close human interaction Syntonic Refuge discloses the heartbeats of two people who wrap themselves in the embrace of a shawl. The shawl, with embedded sensors and LEDs, represents both care of the individual, and a shelter for shared experiences.

Utilizing a pair of heart-rate sensors, the shawl visualized the beating heart of each participant by gently pulsing a light in time with their heart rate.

Syntonic Refuge was produced by the efforts of the research collective LabSynthE. The shawl used in Syntonic Refuge, knit and built by members of the lab, was a wearable technology that expressed an ethic of care, remembrance and refuge.

Syntonic Refuge is a social engagement that explores the importance of refuge for survivors and the act of surviving. It demonstrates ways that bodies harmonize with the environment, including other bodies.