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Tech

Body Speaker: Remix the Sounds of Your Insides!

Intrigued by the world of medicine and technology, young Dutch artist, Karina van Heck's latest piece of work is a body speaker, which allows you to listen to the sounds of your internal body.

Intrigued by the world of medicine and technology, young Dutch artist, Karina van Heck's latest piece of work is a body speaker, which allows you to listen to the sounds of your internal body. Appropriately titled Body Speaker, it uses sound capturing membranes on to the skin to feed internal bodily sounds to a control system, allowing users not only to listen to their internal sounds but remix them too. This existential endeavor attempts to emphasize the importance of becoming aware of our existence and bodily condition. From Heck's artist statement:

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I'm inspired by the fact that we can easily look inside the human body. X-ray and CT-technology scan our body from the inside. We can lead minuscule camera's into the body and it's possible to get information about our organs, muscles and bones by electrodes producing readable data. Currently more and more medical equipment is being produced which workings create an illusion of medical solutions but show no scientifically proven effects. The absurdity of the functions and designs of such equipment has been the inspiration for the 'Body speaker'. The concept, aesthetic and the functionality are the focal points of the installation…

The sounds, produced by our own body have a function. By hearing the sounds from our own body we become aware of our own existence and the condition and necessities of our body. In times of stress we tend not to listen to our bodies quite enough. We take our bodies for granted, thinking it will keep functioning without having to be programmed. However, your body can tell you everything you need to know. Just learn to listen.

Body Speaker is currently part of a group show entitled "Pretty Smart Textiles", which exhibits work that pertains to the intersection of design, fashion, art and technology. Pretty Smart Textiles is being exhibited at the Hague in the Netherlands until June 24th, 2010.