Generative biometric environment
A living sound environment shaped by the collective physiology of its participants. Not music to follow — a field to inhabit.
sound that listens back
The work
Rather than responding to individual actions, it listens to the subtle ways a group arrives together — shifts in attention, coherence, and shared rhythm.
What emerges is not music to follow, but a sonic field to inhabit: responsive, evolving, and reflective of the space between us.
Why listen collectively
Much of contemporary technology is designed to measure, optimize, or cater to individuals' experience. Emphonic explores a different orientation — one that treats attention, presence, and physiological coherence as shared conditions rather than personal or isolated states.
By rendering collective states perceptible through sound, the system invites reflection rather than instruction, and listening rather than performance.
No outcomes are prescribed. What emerges is allowed to remain ambiguous, shaped directly by the evolving relationships within the group.
four interrelated processes
Participants wear non-invasive biometric sensors collecting subtle physiological signals — heart rate variability, respiration, neural activity.
These signals are held collectively, not interpreted individually.
Signals from across the group are combined into a single collective data state.
Group-level dynamics take precedence over individual patterns.
The collective state maps to parameters within a generative sound system.
Changes in tone, density, rhythm, and spatial distribution emerge as the group's shared state shifts.
The system retains memory of prior states.
Each session subtly informs the next — giving the sound field continuity and a capacity to learn without repetition.
Emphonic is in an early development phase, establishing core system behaviors and experiential conditions through small-scale experiments rather than public exhibition.
Currently in place
A foundational framework defining how biometric sensing, aggregation, and sound generation relate as a unified system — establishing the conditions under which collective states can be held without privileging individual signals.
Early models exploring how subtle physiological signals combine into shared states, emphasizing relational patterns over individual metrics.
Ongoing research into how the system responds over time — thresholds, responsiveness, continuity across sessions.
In development
A modular pipeline for receiving and stabilizing biometric data from non-invasive sensors, prioritizing reliability, privacy, and flexibility.
Early construction of a generative sound system designed to remain responsive without becoming directive.
Conceptual and preparatory work examining how collective states might be expressed sonically and spatially.
Enter the conversation
We seek collaborators — artists, researchers, technologists, and funders — drawn to work at the meeting point of collective experience and emergent technology.
Get in touch