BENEATH THE SKIN: CONTEMPORARY CHRONICLES
Acusmatic Piece based on physiological data.
What happens in our bodies in a world where violence is present 24/7, where genocide is livestreamed, and impunity circulates on video? What, then, inhabits our bodies?
The piece arises from the sonification of physiological data (skin conductance and pupil dilation) in response to faces expressing anger. In the work, these data are interpreted as fluctuating breaths; this reaction, almost imperceptible yet persistent, becomes sound—a way of expressing the hidden, what violence generates beneath the skin, in the body. The work aims to provoke reflection. It is said that we have become indifferent to it, but how true is that? We are sentient bodies, bodies that freeze, bodies traversed by a global politics of terror.
Technical details: The piece was created using data sonification, sound synthesis, and generative matrices in Max/MSP. The fluctuations of breath derived from the physiological data were processed with reverb and delay, turning the sonified data into immersive sound textures.
Piece presented at Festival Murmuro, 2025, Centro Cultural Digital, Mexico City