Beneath the Skin: Biophysical Signals as a Creative Medium

This presentation explores an art–science research-creation practice that uses biophysical sensing as a medium for interactive and computational art. Central to this work is The Source (www.biomeci.com), a biosensing platform developed to enable artists and researchers to incorporate physiological signals directly into responsive media systems. The Source supports real-time capture of multiple biophysical signals, including electrocardiography (ECG), electrodermal activity (EDA), electromyography (EMG), electroencephalography (EEG), electrooculography (EOG), and respiratory effort (RSP).

Mark-David Hosale will introduce The Source and demonstrate how physiological signals provide insight into affective and physiological states and how these states can be used to shape audiovisual, haptic, and multisensory outputs in interactive artworks and performances.

Ilze Briede [Kavi] will present her academic research and artworks that use The Source, including the collaborative works, Somatic Interventions (2022) and Reimagining Living Ontologies (2024), both of which have resulted in scholarly publications. She will also discuss her current PhD research exploring brain data (EEG) and cybernetic feedback systems in artistic practice.

Together, the presentation examines how biophysical signals can function not only as measurements of the body but as expressive materials within embodied and cybernetic media systems that expand the sensorium of computational arts.

3-4:30 PM, Friday, April 10

Jackman Humanities Building, Room JHB100 (1st Floor)

170 St George St, M5S 1V8

This is a free public event, but please register to attend. Registration starts now and ends by Apr 10 at 3 PM.

Mark-David Hosale is a computational artist and composer and an Associate Professor in Computational Arts in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance, and Design at York University. His work explores the boundaries between the virtual and the physical world, spanning performance, public art, and gallery installations.

Mark-David is the founder of nD::StudioLab (www.ndstudiolab.com), a research-creation space dedicated to art-science exploration, computational art, and interactive architecture. His research integrates hardware, software, and digital fabrication to create immersive experiences that blur the line between the virtual and the real. His theoretical work focuses on worldmaking—the creation of alternate realities as artistic and ontological explorations that challenge our perception of reality.

At the heart of his work lies a fundamental inquiry: How do we come to know something? How do we express what we know? Through immersive art, he seeks to create sensory-driven experiences that transcend language, offering new ways of understanding and engaging with the world.

Ilze Briede (artist alias Kavi) is a Latvian–Canadian artist and researcher working across visual art, digital design, interactive installation, and live audiovisual performance. Her creative and pedagogical practice engages with biophysical sensing, creative coding, and projection-based media to explore the aesthetic and epistemological potential of physiological data.

Kavi is currently a PhD candidate in Digital Media at York University, Toronto, where her research investigates the design of cybernetic systems for performance and immersive narrative environments driven by real-time biophysical signals. Her work examines how physiological data—such as brain activity and other biopotentials—can function as generative inputs for artistic systems, enabling alternative modes of perception, participation, and knowledge production.

She is affiliated with several York University research groups, including nD::StudioLab (directed by Prof. Mark-David Hosale), SLOlab (Prof. Jane Tingley), The Alice Lab (Prof. Graham Wakefield), and the Sensorium Research Cluster. In addition, she worked on developing an immersive 360-degree visual environment at BetaSpace Research Lab, resulting in the project titled Reimagining Living Ontologies.

Kavi holds academic degrees in Visual and Computational Arts (Canada), Digital Media Production (United Kingdom), and Chinese Language and Cultural Studies (Latvia).

This event is organized by the Jackman Humanities Institute Working Group on Performing Gestures, Producing Cultures: Towards an Interdisciplinary Understanding of Human Movement.

Sponsored and hosted by Jackman Humanities Institute.

Presented in partnership with ArtSci Salon (https://artscisalon.com/) and BMO Lab (https://bmolab.artsci.utoronto.ca).

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Host or Publisher JHI Working Group on Gesture