Variability of Movement, Adaptivity, and Resilience

We all know the conceptual meaning of adaptivity and resilience, but how can these concepts be translated and enacted in everyday life? Translating them to a more tangible level creates a link between conceptual understanding and direct physical experience. In order to explore this approach, we developed a fractal movement tracking device that helps explore those concepts through the body using direct haptic and visual feedback through a movement sensor.

Fractal Movement Dynamics and Adaptivity

During our work on the EightOS practice, we developed multiple exercises to help the participants experience adaptivity and resilience through physical movement. The resulting choreography has a very fluid and natural feel, so we decided to explore if it could be formalized mathematically. 

During our residence at Gwangju Biennale, Korea, in 2021, we developed a fractal feedback system that uses motion tracking to provide feedback on the dynamics of movement:

Through these experiments, we discovered that both individual and collective bodies are at their most resilient and adaptive states when they exhibit nonlinear movement dynamics that can be described as fractal in time. That is, certain patterns are similar across different time scales: a short period of observation will yield the same picture of change as a long observation. However, a longer period will contain a change of a higher amplitude than a shorter one. That's why such variability is called fractal: the patterns of change replicate over time but the longer the period of observation, the more pronounced change becomes. (Learn more about it and check the scientific research on this subject on the EightOS website).

Practically, this translates into the kind of movement that has a high degree of variability with no average value. Speed and intensity constantly change and never settle on one particular state. The advantage of that is that the body is sensitive to both the smallest impulses and to long-term influences:

This movement is also interesting aesthetically because its "natural" feel arises from an algorithm that uses the same maths that is used to describe many natural processes in everyday life. We describe the mathematical approach in detail in the article on heart rate variability. We use an algorithm called detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) which measures change over time and is widely used in medical and fitness applications to study the dynamics of heart rate variability (HRV).

Therefore, it turns out, that the language used to describe a natural process (DFA algorithm that describes variations between heartbeats in healthy subjects) is then applied to recreate the same dynamics but on the level of the body.

When applied in partner work or in a group, this leads to very fluid dynamics that can be described as "chaotic" in the scientific sense of the word: chaos as a dynamical fractal state where multiple physicalities co-exist at every moment of time.

Movement Tracking Sensors

To try this out yourself, you can use the movement sensor app (or clockface) that we developed for FitBit smartwatches (Versa 3 or Sense 2). To download it, go to FitBit App > Versa 3 / Sense 2 > Gallery or go to FitBit appstore (or check the clockface).

You can use the default settings and click the bottom right "record" button to start tracking your movement. 

The symbol will show which state you're in. If you click on the symbol, you'll switch to another view that shows the different states you've been in during the last minute. 

To get in the fractal state, you can move your arm in a variable way (fast / slow, tension / release) for about 2 minutes. You can also try to do that while walking and moving. Alternating between different types of walking and moving your hand slowly and quickly. This will create various dynamical patterns within the same periods of time, which, in turn, produces adaptive and resilient movement. Such approach lets you be sensitive to both the smaller impulses and bigger impacts. 

This app is currently in beta mode and we welcome your feedback. We are also developing a similar app for other movement trackers, including Apple Watch that would also have aspects of journaling to help people correlate their physicality with emotional states. We also have an app for measuring heart rate variability using the same approach. It's available upon request.

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