DATA SHEET
Title / Título:
Simpático para simpático
Team members / Miembros del equipo:
Andrea Peguero Cid (ES) artist / artista; Elena Rivero Jara (ES) artist / artista; Juan Dávila Ramírez (CO) artist & programmer / artista & programador; María Cruz Velásquez (MX) artist / artista
Scientist / Científico:
Francisco Manuel Ocaña Campos (ES) professor of experimental psychology and principal investigator of the Neuroscience of Well-Being research group / profesor de psicología experimental e investigador principal del grupo Neurociencia del Bienestar; Isabel Martín Monzón (ES) psychobiologist and professor in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Seville / psicobióloga y profesora en el departamento de psicología experimental de la Universidad de Sevilla; Daniela Samaniego Sancho (ES) PhD student in psychopedagogy / estudiante de doctorado en psicopedagogía; Emilio Durán García (ES) psychologist and professor in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Seville / psicólogo y profesor en el departamento de psicología experimental de la Universidad de Sevilla; Laura Amores Carrera (ES) postdoctoral student in psychobiology / estudiante post doctoral en psicobiología
Neuroscience of Well-Being Research Group of the University of Seville / Grupo de Investigación Neurociencia del Bienestar de la Universidad de Sevilla
Seed / Semilla:
“Neuroemotional Symphony” / “ Sinfonía Neuroemocional”
Technique / Técnica:
Installation, Interactive Booths and video creations / Instalación, Cabinas interactivas y videocreaciones
Dimensions / Dimensiones:
Variable dimensions / Medidas variables
SEED
Explore how emotions influence brain activity and physical health from the perspective of wellness neuroscience. Positive emotions activate areas such as the prefrontal cortex and limbic system, promoting internal balance, self-regulation of the nervous system, and physiological coherence (such as stable HRV), which improves resilience. Negative emotions, on the other hand, hyperactivate the amygdala and HPA axis, elevating cortisol levels and altering biological rhythms, which can promote chronic diseases. Techniques such as mindfulness, biofeedback, and neurofeedback allow for training in emotional self-regulation, promoting well-being and quality of life.
THE VISION OF THE CREATORS OF THE WORK
There are places where the voice is no longer necessary. Where language is born not in the mouth, but in the chest—in the pulse that beats with every emotion and becomes light.
Simpático para Simpático proposes a new form of communication. In a world saturated with images and stimuli, where genuine feeling is rarely allowed, this experience removes words, sounds, and visuals. What remains is the heart. Two people, in separate booths, can neither see nor hear each other. They don’t need to know one another. Their only link is their heartbeats, translated into light pulses. Through these signals, they sense each other’s emotional state—pure, immediate, and sincere.
This silent dialogue returns to the essential: the heartbeat, a rhythm we cannot fake. No identities or thoughts are revealed—only shared emotion. Technology is just a bridge. What truly matters is the willingness to open up to this form of connection. At first, there may be fear or discomfort. We’re used to hiding behind words. Here, the heartbeat reveals joy, calm, or nervousness—openly and honestly.
With sight and sound removed, attention shifts to intuition and empathy. It’s not about understanding, but feeling. This transparency can be both liberating and challenging.
Over time, a synchrony can emerge: a wordless closeness, an intense and honest connection based purely on shared rhythms. This project invites us to rethink how we relate to each other. Sometimes it’s not language, but the emotional vibration we all carry, that truly brings us together.
CURATOR'S VISION OF THE WORK
In an era oversaturated with images, noise, and superficial interactions, that SciArt installation invites us to reconsider how we connect—not through language, identity, or thought, but through the body’s most honest signal: the heartbeat. This participatory installation removes all visual and auditory cues. Two strangers, isolated in separate booths, experience each other solely through pulses of light, synced to their real-time heart rhythms.
The work returns us to a pre-verbal state, suggesting that our most fundamental human connection precedes language. It offers a rare space of vulnerability and consent—where communication is stripped of manipulation, reduced to unfiltered presence. It challenges the norms of how intimacy is built in a hyperconnected world: can empathy thrive without words or faces?
Technology here does not dominate—it disappears, allowing a quiet, emotional synchrony to emerge. In this minimalist exchange, we are reminded that to feel with another is perhaps more powerful than to understand them. “Simpático para Simpático” invites us to listen not with ears, but with the heart.
Con la colaboración de la Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología – Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades @fecyt_ciencia
