Launch: The Formula of Giving Heart

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Part of the Humanities Cultural Programme, one of the founding stones for the
future  Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities

 

Launch Event: The Formula of Giving Heart

31 May 2021, 5pm

Watch here:

 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/xQarV0K76NQ

 

 

‘Abducted from the canon of normality,

the heart awakens

between silences,

between pulses.’

 

‘The Formula of Giving Heart’ is an audio visual work by Khaled Kaddal (artist and technologist), based on a  cybernetic conversation between computational technology and the body. Together in the autonomous <punt> domain, <Ka’> (human subject) and <serpent-the-server> (multisensory program) contemplate the rupture of pulse and erosion of rhythm.

The project is a continuation of Kaddal’s exploration of ancient Egyptian semiotics. The Formula of Giving a Heart is a 4500-year-old funerary script and medical spells that consider the heart in two dimensions: The outer Hatj or the physical puse, and the inner Ib or the invisible core seat human consciousness, intelligence and emotions. As a ritualistic plea or a medical procedure, the spell calls on the two dimensions of the heart to stand by their owner and ease their transition to a state of pure renewal.

Contemplating on the ancient script as code to fortify the heart in times of precarity, the project remodels the spell into a multisensory program that encompasses bio-data from the heart and neural activities, a multi-angle camera surveillance system, motion detection and speech synthesis.

 

Credits:

Khaled Kaddal - concept, performance and programing

Nisrine Mansour - script

<serpent-the-server> - camera surveillance system

Mohamed Hadidi - post-production

Darci Sprengel - hosting research fellow (St John’s College and the Faculty of Music)

 

Kaddal is a Nubian visual artist and sound performer, raised in Egypt and currently resident in London. Allaying science and politics, spirituality and technology, he works with two interdependent abstractions; ‘Immortality of Time’ and ‘Sovereignty of Space’, in search for the imperishable balance between intelligence, emotions and moral judgments.

Recent solo show at Overgaden Institut for Samtidskunst, Copenhagen; group exhibitions include ‘One the Edge’ at Science Gallery, London; ’10 Years of Production’ at Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah; ‘What do you mean, here we are?’ at Mosaic Rooms Gallery, London; ‘Art Olympics’ at Tokyo Metropolitan ArtMuseum, Tokyo; Performances at ‘Keep quite and Dance’ at Cairotronica Symposium, Cairo; Zentrum der Kunster Hellerau, Dresden; and ‘Daily Concerns’ at Dilston Grove Gallery, London.

Kaddal has an upcoming show at 5th Biennale Internationale de Casablanca, Morocco; and a Resident Fellow at Uniarts Helsinki, Finland. He studied Computer Science at AAST (EG), and Sound Art at the University of the Arts London (UK).

 

For more information on Khaled Kaddal's Visiting Fellowship please click here.