Noise+Signal – Daksha Patel
About the Artwork
Noise+Signal is a print documenting a large-scale drawing produced during a live performance at FACT, Liverpool. The performance involved the use of bio-sensors such as an EEG monitor (electroencephalogram measures electrical activity on the surface of the brain) and a skin galvanometer (measuring slight changes in skin conductivity). Live data from both sensors, (one worn by myself and another by a participant) was projected in real time on a surface upon which I traced the animated lines.
The visualisation followed pathways dictated by drawings I had previously made of the spaces where the performances took place. However, a feedback loop between both sensors triggered changes in the pathways, direction, speed and intensity of the projected lines, so that lack of control and unpredictability became integral to the process.
This experimental work explores ideas about the visualisation of data, particularly the values and meanings associated with data that is ‘noisy’ and which contains other kinds of contextual information. It questions what a drawing can reveal that a scientific visualisation cannot.
About the Artist
Patel’s practice engages with mapping, measuring and visualising the human body. She regularly undertakes residencies in scientific institutions and was selected for an art/science collaborative award in medical imaging at the University of Manchester (2015/6). The process of drawing remains at the heart of her practice. She experiments with drawing materials that are unstable and fugitive such as animal fat, vellum and clay, as well as working with graphite on paper to examine the relationship between drawing and measurement.
Her current installation Pani at the Horniman museum, London, merges satellite imagery, drawing and embroidery to explore the interconnections between the environment, human health and bio-diversity, and her animation All of a sudden has recently been selected for the RWA Open, Bristol. She has an upcoming solo show in 2018 at Watermans Arts, London.