Synaesthesia and cycling data art: towards cross-modal representations of self-tacking cycling data

ABSTRACT

This paper develops ideas around cycling as art practice. The questions at the heart of it revolve around how new data technologies enable us to represent such experiences as artworks. Recent research in neuroscience has begun to establish the ways in which modes of perception are processed in the brain. Related research suggests that Synaesthesia may be caused by a genetic mutation that results in a ‘cross wiring’ of these modes of perception. Within the arts there is a long history of exploration around synaesthesia, ideas that are becoming relevant again particularly in relation to the growth in personal data. Representing sensations and transferring them from one mode to another offers a way to handle some of this data and potentially say new things about our experiences. The author explores these ideas through artworks made using data from cycling to investigate the visualization of this experience.

KEYWORDS:

• Generative art
• data art
• cycling
• synaesthesia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr Shaleph O’Neill is a Senior Researcher/Lecturer at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD), University of Dundee, who has worked on a number of interaction design projects that explore user sense making processes and creative activities (BENOGO, EU Presence Initiative, IST-2001-39184; Leonardo: Culture Creativity and Interaction Design, EPSRC GR/T21042/0; Making Sense of Creative Interactions, EPSRC F053029/1; The Arts API Project, Nesta Digital Research and Development Fund). His expertise lies in the area of semiotics and creative computing. He is Author of “Interactive Media: The Semiotics of Embodied Interaction” (published by Springer, 2008). His research focus is to better understand the relationship between creative people, creative processes and creative technologies while making artworks from Self-Tracking cycling data.

ORCID

Shaleph O’Neill http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5588-5702