The HeartBeats Watch

The HeartBeats Watch.

© 2011 Julie Legault.

Stretching or shrinking hours at the beat of your heart, The HeartBeats Watch is a timepiece in which the duration of time is paced not by seconds but according to the wearer's heartbeat. Through a heightened awareness of self, The HeartsBeats Watch brings together art and science to reveal emotional complexity of time and the human body. A poetic investigation of the physiology of emotions, health, immortality and control, the watch bridges the gap between society and medical science, invoking a broader cultural perception of life.

Through the premise of accessories and jewelry as providers of "superpowers" and the idea of objects of comfort, Julie Legault explores the possible futures of accessories through technology, function, and fantasy, using the premise of technology as magic to combine materials and circuitry, creating wearable wonders. Her current research concerns the relationships that mentally and emotionally disabled individuals have with objects and accessories. Working from the outside in, she hopes not only to understand and improve these relationships and their impact on the individual's social presence, but also to distill the essence of these relationships to benefit a wider audience, adding some missing magic along the way. To avoid the impending "under the skin" aspect of hybridization, Legault's work also explores the ethics and obsolescence of consumer culture by providing insights and tools for self-awareness and wonder.

The HeartBeats Watch.

© 2011 Julie Legault.

The HeartBeats Watch.

© 2011 Julie Legault. Photo © 2011 V2_Institute of the Unstable Media.

Julie Legault is an interdisciplinary designer. She was born in Montréal, Canada, and lives and works in London, UK. She received her BA from Concordia University (Canada) where she studied design, art, and digital technologies. In 2011, she received an MA in Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork, and Jewelry at the Royal College of Art, London (UK). Having worked with Moritz Waldemeyer, Joanna Berzowska, and the V2_Unstable Media Lab in Rotterdam, she recently presented her work on wearable wonders (the results of her ongoing research in the hybridization of humans and machines) in Europe and North America, notably at the Victoria & Albert Museum (UK), ISEA 2011 (Turkey), and TEI 2012 (Canada).