The Matter of The Heart

 

By idontloveyouanymore

 

The Matter of The Heart Is a collection of Lancaster hearts; a collection of Lancaster residents, and their live real-time heartbeats. Wherever they are right now, together or apart, far away or near the artwork, their hearts will remain in this space, flashing together. 

 

The Matter of The Heart is the brand new artwork by award winning art studio idontloveyouanymore, commissioned by Light Up Lancaster, Barnsley Bright Nights, Salford Lightwaves, and supported by Arts Council England.

 

Idontloveyouanymore are based in Manchester and make work that explores the relationship between technology and the contemporary human experience. Their work has exhibited internationally including at Sundance Film Festival, Siggraph and the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. They are recipients of BFI London Film Festival’s Best Immersive Art and finalists for the Oxford Samuel Beckett Award. 

You may also have seen their work in previous editions of Light Up Lancaster – a magical waterfall in the Priory Church, a digital river on Upper Church Street, or an interactive overheard storm in St John’s Church.

 

For this project idontloveyouanymore uses wearable bio-monitoring technologies, to bring together and curate a community, expressed purely through the live heart-beat data of Lancaster residents. It is an expression of a city’s societal networks, and a demonstration of the collective power of community. As an audience member you’re invited to walk among the flashing hearts, like a graveyard of the living, to allow the interconnectivity of Lancaster to light your path.

 

An archive of everyone who has participated in this project will be collected as the work tours, building up a network of connectivity that hopefully, one day, spans the globe.

To keep an eye on this project or join as a participant in its future iterations please visit: https://thematteroftheheart.com

 

Light Up the North is a network of light festivals who work together to support new talent and to bring light artworks to a wider audience. 

In 2024, three of the network partners have joined forces to co-commission The Matter of the Heart, a new artwork by Manchester-based artists. 

Lancaster is the first time this piece will be shown. There will be further opportunities to see it again, reconfigured for each place with its own 100 participants, at Barnsley Bright Nights event on 22nd and 23rd November, and again at the Lightwaves event in Salford Quays between 5th and 8th December. 

 

Co-commissioned by

Light Up Lancaster, Barnsley Bright Nights, Salford Lightwaves, and supported by Arts Council England.