Positively Charged: Heartbeats is an interactive art installation by artist Kasia Molga that invites us to re-imagine the way we produce and consume energy.
Through their movements, visitors activate the heartbeat sensor which, when triggered, illuminates the sculpture, sets the light in motion and plays a musical soundtrack.
An industrialised city of one million inhabitants can consume around 10,000 MWh - or 10,000 kilowatt-hours per inhabitant, with peak consumption at nightfall. How many of these kilowatts could we produce ourselves? The human heart, our internal energy 'engine', produces between 2 and 5 watts. A sprint can create an explosion of energy of up to 2000 watts. But is this enough for us to become living batteries in the future? Will we one day be energy self-sufficient? And if not, how can we become aware of the energy we need to be comfortable and 'feel' the effort required to extract or produce it?
"The project originally began with a workshop with children in Taipei, during which the young people talked to me about their vision of the city of the future. What they had to say was very profound, eco-responsible and based on a sense of community. We went on to discuss one of the biggest challenges of the years to come: electrical energy. That's where I got the idea for this installation. Kasia Molga
By making the public directly responsible for the 'life' of the work, Kasia Molga makes the invisible shine, inviting us to reflect on our relationship with energy, the energy we consume and the energy we produce.
Visitors not only have to 'invest' themselves in triggering the installation, they also have to find the right rhythm in their movement: if they 'turn' too quickly, much of the 'energy' produced is wasted in the form of heat that escapes, creating an imbalance in the lighting and eventually switching off all the electroluminescent wires.
The shape of the light display varies according to location and context. For example, in Taiwan, the main part of the exhibition was made up of over 700 metres of electric cables representing the city's electricity network.
If more visitors interact with the installation at the same time, it may be easier to turn (and produce energy), but it is also easier to create this imbalance. The visitors who contribute to the installation must therefore find a way of working together to ensure that it runs smoothly.
