Client: Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Trust
Colleagues Steve Almond, Traxon Lighting & John Haughton

The sculpture becomes animated through the presence and action of people in varied and changeable ways. A hospital is more than just a building: it is a living machine and a machine for living. The work alludes to the simple, precious and fascinating commonality of the heartbeat.
LED lighting, medical monitoring equipment and control devices imbue the work’s different aspects.
At rest, it breathes a blue light.
When the handles are held onto, it functions as a heart rate monitor, flashing red at the rate of the person or persons holding on.
On the hour, it functions as a clock.
Two infrared beams (PIR) set into the landscape design trigger other moving sequences when tripped.