Body Electric Performances/Exhibition

Inspired by Walt Whitman's visionary poem "I Sing the Body Electric," this exhibition reimagines the body as a network of electric impulses, voltages, and signals that both generate and transmit lived experiences. Body Electric brings together artists, researchers, performers, and technologists who explore the inner electrical life of the human body through biophysical sensing. By capturing physiological signals such as brainwaves (EEG), heart rhythms (ECG), and muscle activity (EMG). The exhibition reveals the hidden languages of the body — not as metaphor, but as material, as data, as expression.

Electricity governs life on Earth at every scale, from small molecular organisms to sophisticated evolved beings. In the human body, in particular, electricity presents itself as the firing of neurons, the pulse of the heart, the conductivity of the skin, and the flux of emotional states. This exhibition foregrounds electricity not only as a force of animation, but as a creative medium — a raw, natural element that artists can sense, shape, and translate. The electric medium is further carried into the technological domain as a means of instrumentation and expression of gathered data from the human body. Through interactive installations, performances, and sonic-visual systems, Body Electric invites audiences to witness how the body thinks, feels, and reacts beneath the surface. What emerges is a portrait of the human not as a fixed entity, but as an ever-changing field of affective and electrical relations.

Body Electric will take place this December at Charles Street Video (Toronto) and features contributions from York University faculty, students, and international collaborators. The exhibition builds a living bridge between the past and the present, connecting analogue pioneers with today's generative futures, and invites us to look into the future with an open and curious mind.

Exhibition/Workshop Dates:

Opening, reception and performances: Friday, December 5th at 6pm,
performances starts at 7pm

Exhibition Open to Public: Saturday, December 6th and Sunday, December 7th
from 12pm - 4pm

Biophysical Movement and Emotion as Computational Interfaces Workshop
December 13 and 14th 

Workshop details
and signup here!

About the Artists:
The programme will feature a series of interactive installations, including body-physiology sensing chairs originally conceptualized by artist Alan Macy, a retrospective of the work of artist, composer, and scholar David Rosenboom, and installations by artists from York University’s nD::StudioLab (https://www.ndstudiolab.com/), including Ilze Briede [Kavi], Kwame Kyei-Boateng, Kyle Duffield, Mark-David Hosale, Hrysovalanti Maheras, and Nava Waxman.
It will also include live performances, among them a new work by composer Gene Coleman with violinist Amy Hillis from York’s Music Department; a performance by The Global Organoid Orchestra (GOO); and a set by the live-coding collective The Endemics.
The Global Organoid Orchestra (GOO) includes:
Mark-David Hosale and Ilze Briede [Kavi] in Toronto;
Diarmid Flatley, Marcos Novak, Iason Paterakis, and Nefeli Manoudaki in Santa Barbara;
and collaborators at the Kosik Neurobiology Lab, UC Santa Barbara (Ken Kosik, Director), along with Tjitse van der Molen and Eve Bodnia.
The Endemics consists of Ilze Briede [Kavi] and Hrysovalanti Maheras.

 2025