PULSE

The Rhythm of Presence

PULSE is an audiovisual installation about the human being as a source of form, rhythm, and meaning. Placed at the end of the immersive part of the exhibition during Krosno Design Festival 2025, it functioned as a symbolic closure of the visitor’s path - a moment in which the viewer ceased to be merely an observer and became the living material of the work. Their presence, body, and heartbeat were inscribed into the exhibition space, recalling that design and craftsmanship cannot exist without the human being: without the hand, gesture, breath, imagination, and the trace left in matter.

The installation spoke about the continuity of creation. Craftsmanship was understood here as the memory of the hand, design as the vision of the mind. Between them appeared the pulse: the most personal, biological rhythm, which for a moment became a tool, a composition, and a sign of presence. What is internal and invisible was translated into image, sound, and light.

Biometric Activation

PULSE was created by SZUM as the finale of the immersive part of the exhibition exploring the relationship between design and craftsmanship. The installation was located in the final room of the exhibition and was activated through the participant’s direct contact with a pedestal equipped with a pulse sensor.

After placing their hand on the sensor, the system read the viewer’s heartbeat and triggered an audiovisual sequence synchronised with their pulse. At the centre of the space stood a monumental LED screen, set like a monolith, accompanied by two 3D scanners capturing the participant in 360 degrees, a subwoofer, and a wall of horizontal LED lamps.

Point Cloud and Heartbeat

A point cloud appeared on the screen - a digital image of the person standing inside the installation. The viewer observed themselves as material waiting to be shaped. With each heartbeat, the point of view changed: the camera moved between successive perspectives, showing the silhouette from different sides.

This was accompanied by a deep, physically felt heartbeat sound coming from the subwoofer, and pulsating red light from the LED lamps spreading through the space in the rhythm of the participant’s body. The biological impulse thus became not only the source of interaction, but also the fundamental compositional structure of the entire experience.

Symbols of the Exhibition

With each successive heartbeat, the viewer’s digital presence began to transform. The points forming their silhouette morphed into three-dimensional symbols connected to the themes of the exhibition - signs of tool, object, form, and process.

The participant’s body thus became material, gesture, and trace. The installation reminded viewers that craftsmanship and design are not abstract concepts, but processes rooted in human presence - in touch, decision, movement, and imagination.

Trace and Fade-Out

After the participant stepped away, the intense reds gradually faded into white. The screen and light dissolved the trace of their presence, returning to a state of waiting. The space became empty again, ready for another encounter, another pulse, and another person who could leave behind a trace - not in stone or metal, but in image, sound, and the memory of experience.