Vayu
Vayu is a research-driven creative technology project that explores breathing as an interface for human–computer interaction, collective experience, and self-regulation. The project sits at the intersection of physiology, wearable computing, and embodied design, treating breath not as data to be optimized, but as a living signal to be felt, interpreted, and shared.
At its core, Vayu uses wearable biosignals such as heart rate variability, respiration patterns, and subtle bodily rhythms to create real-time feedback through haptics and visual systems. Instead of screens demanding attention, the system responds quietly through the body, allowing participants to sense changes in their nervous system without external instruction or performance pressure.
Vayu emerged from a simple but unresolved question: What happens when technology adapts to the body’s natural rhythms instead of asking the body to adapt to technology?
In many digital wellness tools, breath is reduced to timers, visuals, or cognitive prompts. Vayu approaches breath as a co-creative medium, one that can shape interaction, presence, and emotional regulation without language or explicit goals.
Within a metacreation context, Vayu enables:
Embodied interaction, where participants influence systems through unconscious physiological states rather than deliberate commands
Collective biofeedback, allowing groups to experience shared rhythms and emergent patterns of calm, tension, or coherence
Non-verbal storytelling, where internal states become part of the creative output itself
The project has been explored through prototypes spanning wearable devices, interactive installations, and research tools designed for artists and researchers working with bio-interactive systems. These prototypes prioritize accessibility and openness, lowering the barrier for creative practitioners to work with complex physiological data without requiring deep technical expertise.
Vayu is not positioned as a solution, product, or performance. It is an evolving inquiry into how breath, technology, and attention can coexist in more humane and intuitive ways. As part of the Metacreation ecosystem, the project contributes to broader conversations around embodied AI, slow technology, and the role of the nervous system in creative practice.
Ultimately, Vayu invites a shift in perspective: from interaction as control, to interaction as listening.