Proper Time is an ongoing project led by Raquel Meseguer Zafe, of Unchartered Collective.

This project is about time: crip time, slow time. Time is a physical and existential experience. Time that relates to space, presence, and scale.

Part science lecture, part live gig, part movement, part theatre. The question at the heart of it: what can you make when you’re not pushing through pain and fatigue to make it?

My role as lead creative technologist was to create a system that allows for real-time remote collaboration by the “crip choir”. The magic of the system is about bringing the remote audience into the performance space, so their presence can be felt.

I created 6 radar sensors, which are used by members of the crip choir while they are watching the show. The sensors gather heart and breathing rate data and transmit this to the cloud in real-time via Wifi.

Here is the raw data dashboard in adafruit.io.

The wonderful Robin Thawn then created a system (above) which reads the heart and breathing rate data in real-time and turns it into musical control signals that Jamie uses to create the music within the show.

Jamie McCarthy creating the music and soundscape from the sensor data.

All performance photos by Keycreationz.

Anna Starkey brings to the performance thoughts on The Physics of Crip Time and imagining a better Time.

For more information, see the Proper Time page on The Uncharted Collective website.