A Visual Exploration of Stress and Bodily Rhythms

“Non-Zero-Sum, Body” is an experimental 3D animation project that reinterprets the complex relationship between stress and bodily responses through a nonlinear visual language, within the context of contemporary bioculture where the human body is increasingly datafied and optimized. Based on the artist’s own Heart Rate Variability (HRV) data, the work visualizes how the autonomic nervous system responds to stress stimuli and regulates internal balance. Rather than reducing the body to a mere machine or object of control, this project explores the rhythms of a living system where destruction and recovery intersect. It offers new interpretive possibilities between sensory experience and data-driven perception.

This project began as a response to the contemporary cultural shift in which our bodies are increasingly perceived as measurable biological machines. The proliferation of sensors, smart wearables, and biohacking technologies compels us to continuously track and analyze our physical states. In fields such as health, science, economics, and sports, data has become a central tool for understanding and intervening in the body. As a result, the collection and interpretation of bodily data has become an integral part of everyday self-care. While the normalization of self-tracking opens up new possibilities for self-awareness and management, it also carries the risk of reducing the body to an object of control and optimization.

Through this lens, the project reinterprets stress not merely as something to be eliminated, but as a complex biological signal. The concept of the “Non-Zero-Sum,” as referenced in the title, conveys a central philosophical idea. Biological processes such as autophagy, for example, can support survival under stress, yet under certain conditions may also lead to cell death or disease. These are multifaceted phenomena where destruction and recovery, damage and adaptation, occur simultaneously. The project reconstructs biometric data into a sensory and poetic visual language—raising questions about how much we can truly understand the body through data, and how the rhythms and sensations of the body that resist quantification might be expressed. In doing so, it explores the limits of a data-driven perception of the body.

Animating Invisible Biometric Rhythms

​This line of inquiry is realized through the medium of 3D animation. Based on the artist’s own Heart Rate Variability (HRV) data, the work visualizes the subtle rhythms and fluctuations of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) as it responds to stress. The animation reveals the invisible dynamism where order and chaos intersect within the body, through forms that morph according to HRV values, pulsating scale shifts, and color gradients that transition from calm blues to intense reds.

At the core of the work is an “Electrocardiogram (EKG)” sequence generated from the artist’s own heart rate data, allowing viewers to intuitively connect visual abstraction with actual physiological information. In daily life, we encounter varying levels of stress—our pulse quickens and our breath becomes shallow in moments of emotional tension or unexpected events. Yet behind these visible responses, an invisible internal system is constantly reacting and striving to maintain balance. This project sensorially explores those hidden rhythms and responses within the body.

Data Mapping

HRV (Heart Rate Variability) data is mapped onto various visual elements within the animation to create an intuitive representation of internal physiological states. The data drives the transformation of form through morph targets, simulates pulsing by modulating scale fluctuations, and visualizes stress levels through shifts in color and luminance. Calm, low-stress states are expressed with cool blue tones and soft glows, while heightened stress is depicted with intense reds and increased brightness—rendering the invisible fluctuations of the body perceptible through a dynamic and immersive visual language.

“Non-Zero-Sum, Body” translates biometric data into a sensory and poetic visual language, revealing the limitations of a quantifiable understanding of the body and proposing new layers of interpretation between sensory experience and metric information.

This project moves beyond viewing the body as a merely measurable entity, instead seeking to revive the inherent rhythms and complexities of life itself. It offers an alternative way of thinking about the body in the age of data.

Reference\

Recycling at the cellular level: autophagy as an evolutionary self-cleaning program