doppler

CD, monoculture 003, 1996

 

For this project the blood vessels (veins and aterias) of a body were recorded from head to toes using Dopplersonography. The recordings were released as a CD with a transparent cover carrying drawings and hand engravings using a diamond pen. Together the engraving and drawing indicated the tracks in relation to the body. The release of the CD included superimposing the body onto a map of Berlin, connecting three venues frisör, panasonic and sensor on the map and walking from one venue to the next in three consecutive days while playing the CD on a portable CD player.

The Dopplersonography is a non invasive method to examine  the blood vessels in order to find  narrow  parts in the vessel. The  method  is based on the  Doppler principle named after Christian  Doppler  (1842). He described the shifts in colour of stars depending on  their movement. The same principle was later described for sound waves, that is a change in the wave lenght or the frequency of the sound with movement in relation to the receiver. The Doppler signal represents the change in the frequency of emitted ultrasound backscattering from moving blood cells. This frequency shift  (fd) is determined by  the emitted frequency (fo) the velocity of the blood flow (v) and the angle between the ultrasound beam and the velocity (o): fd = 2 fo  v cos o

Devices
Track 01-09 + 21 – 25 Vasoflo 3 Sonicaid (superficial veins and arteries)
Track 10 – 20 Acuson 128 c / f computed sonography (deep veins and arteries)