ECOLOGICAL CONTEXT OF THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM

Like in CYCLE#2 of my research & with the attempt to stretch my musical creation, in this CYCLE#3 I begun to extend my investigating focus to a field outside of music with a non specific, basic & „generalized“ research manner, which changed my journey as a human and contributing artist entirely. With the intention to obtain a working methodology and artistic practice, in which I search meaning and inspiration from fields outside of my own, I begun to explore the ecological context of the cardiovascular system and the analogy to the six tissue states, pulse evaluation and diagnostics of holistic medicine, laid out by many traditions of medicine from around the world, including Physiomedicalism, Eclecticism, Osteopathy, Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda.

I was fascinated by the clinical case studies of these practitioners which all acknowledged and accepted an ecological understanding of the body, in which the specific constitution of the organs, systems and tissues express themselves in energetic classification such as hot, cold, wet, dry, tense, or relaxed: the temperature, moister & tone.

These are the three central areas of our energetic system that we can impact through holistic practices and methods. With an energetic model of ecology, the term „energetics“ doesn’t mean an esoteric property or a spiritual energetic context, but instead is a qualitative physical interaction of the body to it’s environment.
In many ways, we are able to shift the physiology of the body. But what determines the physiology is the ecology. Central to the practices of holistic medicine is this ecological understanding of the human organism. „The organ systems connect and communicate with one another to maintain the dynamic equilibrium of our entire organism, constantly interacting with the external and internal ecosystems, responding to perturbations, and crafting intelligent responses.“
Quite literally speaking we are seeing the body as an ecosystem, as a microcosm of the earth and not just as a biochemical system or mechanistic model.

So through perceiving the human body with this lens of an ecosystem of the natural world, we’re seeing how they can be reflected in the human body: For instance if we look at the water element, which could express in being stagnant, concealed and swampy like in a marsh. We can observe what happens in a marsh and what that ecosystem is like, and that this translates into a very specific energetic, ecological & physical state of someones body, anatomically speaking there can be an accumulation of metabolic waste products in the liver and portal circulation, which leads to toxicity in the bloodstream, lymph and kidneys, in which the tissues become weak, atrophied, full of stagnant fluids and generally congested and swollen. Very similar to a marsh. Over time the toxins move deeper into the body and can impact the heart by weakening the heart muscle and vessels and express as high blood pressure from accumulation of water and metabolic waste products in the blood.

Now, I’m deeply fascinated by the fact that, since the heart with the circulatory system touches every part of the body, the experienced practitioner is able to evaluate and determine the exact internal ecology and tissue state of each individual organ system through pulse diagnostics.
Central to this examination method within a holistic context is the system for recognizing and describing ecological patterns of the cardiovascular system. It is an ecological model of diagnostics, rather than a mechanical one. These systems stress the uniqueness of the individual and the connection between the organism and it’s environment. In other words, a persons interaction with the world around them affect them psychologically, emotionally and physically.

Within his work Traditional Western Herbalism and Pulse Evaluation, M. Wood differentiates specific pulse patterns and links them to the correlating ecology of the six tissue states. In Chinese Medicine there are 28 primary pulse qualities, but the most important ones are the first 6, which describe the polarities in depth, speed and strength. „Generally speaking these are read in the pulse as a whole to determine the overall state of the person, or their current constitutional state. From there each of the 12 pulse positions are felt one at a time to asses the state of the specific internal organs.“1

In his book, Wood breaks down the various manifestations of the pulse based on different polarities in 5 different categories, which are: dimension, time, tone, blood & vessel, and power:

It is exactly this dynamic ecological context of the heart that captured my attention. I wondered if the pulse positions and each individual ecological tissue state, which could be diagnosed by touch & feel on the wrist, would also express themself in a particular distinguishing sonic quality.
By that means, in the beginning of this investigative CYCLE#3, one of the goals I cherished, was to find sonic proof for the ecological tissue state model in the cardiovascular system through the context of acoustic diagnostics. In other words: Through the integration of methods from acoustic diagnostics, would it be possible to find direct sonic representations of various underlying constitutional imbalances in human physiology and acoustic correlations to ecological patterns? I hoped to experience an acoustic representation of the ecological nature of the heart as a dynamic relational biological oscillator.

To initiate an artistic practice, an essential aspect of the research was the development and examination of various magnifying lenses into the heart. An important requirement was to establish the possibility of recording the acoustics of the heart for the further prospect of integrating the gained insights into my artistic practice. I first experimented with low - & high tech piezo, as well as contact microphones and electromagnetic microphones with an induction coil to capture and convert electromagnetic fields (EMF) into audible sound. I soon changed to hypersensitive contact hydrophones with a surprisingly clear and wide frequency spectrum. But also they lacked in various performance situations and showed various layers of disadvantages which I will further elaborate below.

Even though the heart is a vastly studied field, it is also a vast complex natural phenomenon.
We cannot forget: through observing the pulse, we observe the whole pattern of the individual and the whole person is a multilayered synthesis of countless dynamic non linear processes. In a nutshell: It’s a difficult aspiration. Until today, with the instruments and methods I worked with - mainly in self observation - and construction of a stethoscope microphone, it remains an ongoing process of which I did not find any indications yet.