Informed by conversations with neuroscientists, cardiologists, psychiatrists and technicians, Oberfelder’s newest piece, 4CHAMBERS, invites adventurous audience members to embark on a sensorial journey. In this participatory performance and film installation, participants will monitor the way their hearts are working. Understanding the world through the heart, head, and gut is the essence of our heroic human effort. Jody Oberfelder will investigate primal dynamics of the heart, giving audience members a chance to feel something through their skin akin to animal response. In this site-specific work, the concept is to create an intimate spatial environment within a subdivided gallery with corridors functioning as arteries that lead to four discrete chambers, each with its own focus: (1) The visual chamber will display a rolling loop of films (2) The physical chamber will allow participants to join in movement with the dancers (3) The psychological chamber, will experiment with a series of questions and transcribe the electrophysiology of the heart (4) The pulsing chamber, will allow participants to listen in, contemplate the movement of their own hearts, and drive endorphins to the maximum.

As the audience threads through the installation, they experience their hearts from the inside out.

4CHAMBERS is created in collaboration with video artists Jason Bahling and Jake Witlen; music by Richard Einhorn and Matt McBane, sound design by Weston Minissali, set by Juergen Riehm, and dramaturgy by Pele Bauch.