“Relaxation Circuit”
Pia van Gelder
21 Aug → 26 Sept 2015

Relaxation Circuit is an interactive installation by Pia van Gelder which endeavours to reimagine an important early experiment with bio-circuits and the radiant powers of the human body created 70 years ago by Leon Ernest Eeman. Eeman proposed to treat a variety of medical conditions by harnessing electronic currents emitted or radiated by the human body. Relaxation Circuit is a bio-circuit based on Eeman’s designs with one addition, a bio-synthesiser. This synthesiser creates up to 5 tones or ‘oscillations’ which are controlled or ‘modulated’ by the human body itself sonifying these healing radiant behaviours.

Although Eeman’s bio-circuits did not gain popularity in mainstream or alternative medicine, his proposal highlights a provocative proposition about the possibilities of energy within the human body at a time when the power of electricity was often idealised. This work aims to re-enact this esoteric remedy to rediscover and experience Eeman’s contribution to the healing-arts and further explore his hypothesis through sound. This media archaeological work revisits uncovered and forgotten historical understandings of energy hoping to find new meanings in the connection between media, energy and the body.