Listening to music (Schubert’s “Serenade”), 1880, from The First Time, the Heart (Some Have Two Hearts)

An artist and researcher, Dario Robleto often addresses the intersection of art and science in his work. These six prints by Robleto reproduce some of the first scientifically successful attempts to document the pulse of human hearts under different conditions using a sphygmograph, or “pulse writer.” Invented in 1853 by German physiologist Karl von Virordt, the sphygmograph translated the movement of a pulsing artery to a stylus that traced a white wave pattern on a piece of soot-covered paper. Having studied these recordings, Robleto wanted to methodically contemplate the ephemeral moments of life that had been inscribed by beating hearts long since extinguished. He worked with Island Press to print the nineteenth-century waveforms in transparent ink. He then used a candle flame to hand-soot the images before painstakingly removing soot from the clear ink with a fine paintbrush to reveal the hidden heartbeats. This is one of six prints (from a larger portfolio) that appeared together in a particular arrangement in an exhibition curated by poet Adrian Matejka at the artist’s invitation. Matejka gave the grouping the sub-title “Some Have Two Hearts.”