In contemporary urban life, language and text have become highly symbolized and fragmented means of communication, while direct resonance between bodily perception and deep emotional experience is increasingly overlooked. Beyond Words transforms the iconic telephone booth—long a symbol of public linguistic exchange—into a micro-scale perceptual laboratory for exploring non-verbal, affect-based communication.

The installation invites two participants into separate yet connected telephone booths. Each picks up a handset and places a finger on the integrated pulse sensor. As heartbeats are captured, each person encounters a dynamic audiovisual environment generated in real-time by the other’s rhythmic pulse, translating an intimate biological signal into a shared, perceptible dialogue. This interaction reveals an entangled relationship between the “rhythm of the self” and the “rhythm of the other”: one’s internal cadence is externalized and conveyed to the other, creating a field of post-linguistic emotional resonance where two individual rhythms coexist and communicate.

In the fast-paced, high-pressure landscape of contemporary cities, stress has become the hidden language of the urban body, saturating interpersonal interactions with unspoken emotional undercurrents. Beyond Words gives form to this ambient “emotional noise” through heartbeat-driven feedback, transforming it into a public, perceivable aesthetic language. The work seeks to break through the boundaries of conventional verbal exchange, proposing a new urban mode of communication grounded in embodiment, intimacy, and affective resonance.