Heartbeats Unheard

_Heartbeats Unheard_ confronts the critical gender data gap in heart health through a multisensory crochet installation. Heart attack symptoms in women are often misdiagnosed due to a lack of gender-specific research and data. We ask: How can we bridge the gap between awareness, emotional connection, and creative empowerment to address this crisis? It also aims to bring attention to the systemic underrepresentation in medical research and a lack of awareness around their symptoms, which can include fatigue, nausea, and jaw pain.

Through crochet installation made from community-donated waste fabric, each stitch becomes a quiet act of remembrance, labour, and advocacy.  Crochet, which is a medium associated with feminine craft, care, and time-intensive labour, serves as both metaphor and material. It symbolizes the emotional labour often expected of women, and the historical sidelining of their voices in medical systems. The floor plan of the installation is designed to follow the actual flow of blood through the chambers and valves of the human heart.

The installation includes augmented reality (AR) elements embedded into the textile through QR codes. When scanned, these unlock hidden layers, heartbeat soundscapes, lesser-known symptoms, facts about gendered health disparities, therefore, turning a static object into a multisensory, emotionally resonant experience. Visitors are invited not only to view, but to listen, to feel, and to question.

We hope this work moves people to ask harder questions, listen more deeply, and see heart health, not just as a medical issue, but as a social and emotional one too.