This project analyses the forms of knowledge and representations of the heart in different disciplines. A commented sound essay is developed in this context. The essay gathers materials from hospitals, poetry, compositions, scientific descriptions, films, etc. and considers heart cultures in their heterotopical vulnerability.
This project grows out of an artists-in-labs scholarship. From March to November 2011, artist-in-residence Steffen Alexander Schmidt experiences and “listens to” heart research and everyday hospital life at the Centre Cardiovasculaire at Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV). In addition to a formal protocol, the research produces a number of soundscapes and sound walks addressing heart sounds and their surroundings. The sound walks are presented in several live piano performances, among others at the “Didactica” at the 2011 Montreux Jazz Festival (together with heart surgeon Prof Dr Ludwig K. v. Segesser, who plays the echo cardiographer as a musical instrument). Other performances involving live percussion are held in San Francisco (2013 Art Pad Festival) and Lausanne (at the Musée de La Main on the occasion of the 2014 Long Night of Museums).