Artist – Craftsman

 

Less Than Three was conceived as a wearable that would make it difficult to hide emotional changes. Often in our culture to be unaffected is valued; emotional reactions are seen as a sign of weakness. Less Than Three undermines the wearer’s ability to hide internal change by externalizing fluctuations in heart rate.

Less Than Three consists of a large pendant with accompanying battery pack. It reads the wearer’s pulse by a Polar brand transmitter strapped to the chest beneath clothing. The internal electrical components that drive the unit are lit with white LEDs that pulse with the wearer’s heartbeat.

When the wearer’s heartbeat is at rest (<75 beats per minute), the five surrounding fans remain motionless. When the bpm raises above that threshold, the fans turn on. As the wearer’s heartbeat increases, so does the speed of the fans. This is not necessarily visually discernable, but is audible.

The glyph represented on the faceplate references “squaring the circle,” a 4,000 year-old geometry problem which alchemists used as an allusion to obtaining enlightenment. The fans are arranged in the points of a pentacle, or pentagram. At one time, the five points of the pentacle were used to represent the five classical elements. The three faceplate screw points, combined with the silver triangle, form a hexagram, also used historically to represent the elemental forces.

 

 

The body of the pendant and the cover for the battery compartment are machined from Bloodwood. The rest of the hardware was fabricated from brass, copper, and sterling silver. The pendant hangs from a steel cable, and connects to the battery pack with specially modified audio cabling.