danza_diaframmi
Interactive Immersive Installation
The work investigates mechanisms of collective synchronisation at the intersection of neuroscience, computational technologies, and social processes. At the core of the project lies the phenomenon of emotional contagion: the shared experience of positive emotions forms coherent patterns of brain activity, activates mirror neurons and the dopamine system, generating a sense of unity among participants.
The system analyses facial responses through computer vision based on the MediaPipe library: key anatomical landmarks of the face are tracked in real time, and smile intensity is calculated as the ratio of mouth width to face size. Once a threshold value is reached, generative audiovisual changes are triggered throughout the space. A viewer who smiles provokes smiles in those around them — the installation renders this mechanism spatially perceptible.
The space is configured as a panoramic cylindrical hall with immersive projection across six projectors managed through Resolume Arena. At the centre stands a metal sculpture made of stainless steel, shaped as a horizontal pyramid with a mirror-polished surface. A camera is embedded in the sculpture: one participant activates the space by approaching the object and smiling, and everyone present becomes part of a shared affective response.
The sound layer is built from a purpose-collected dataset of human laughter. Using the neural network models DDSP and RAVE, a variational autoencoder for real-time audio processing, the models were trained, and new sound material was generated. Laughter returns to the space transformed: its overtonal spectrum scales in response to the emotional intensity of the participant.
The visual layer is structured as a morphological dramaturgy: the Harlequin pattern, reinterpreted through generative algorithms, undergoes sequential transformation from kaleidoscopic forms toward images of laughing faces, moving from abstract geometry through visual metaphors of neural structures to a collective human expression of joy.
The title translates from Italian as "dance of diaphragms" and refers to the phenomenon of emotional contagion, in which a smile initiates a chain reaction that develops into laughter as a bodily and social experience. In this, the prosocial potential of computational environments becomes visible: their capacity to sustain shared sensibility and collective affect.
The project was first presented as part of the group exhibition "Machines of Empathy" at the Multimedia Centre of the Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia, in June 2025.
Author: Lucien
Sound: Lucien, Franko
Software Environment Engineer: Ruslan Bobko
Media Engineer: Ivan Preston
Metal sculpture: Anton Volkov/ Metal Laboratory
Curator: Olga Vad
Studio Head: Helena Nikonole
