Pioneering exhibition “The Art of Doing” premieres at the Long Beach Dew Tour Skateboard Competition and Festival; Debuts first-of-its-kind artwork using emotion data from elite skateboarding talent

LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA – June 14, 2017 – Mountain Dew and Lightwave have partnered to celebrate the inextricable connection between the cultures of art and skate via an unforgettable public display of creative technology – “The Art of Doing.” In support of this year’s global Do The DEW campaign – ‘There’s No Feeling Like Doing’ – the groundbreaking art installation, a high-concept gallery space housing six custom-built canvases representing each athlete’s unique feeling of doing, will be featured at the Long Beach Dew Tour from Thursday, June 15 through Sunday, June 18.

“At DEW, we know there’s no better feeling than the euphoric one you get when doing something exhilarating,” says Chauncey Hamlett, senior director of marketing, Mountain Dew. “Our innovative work with Lightwave helps translate that feeling into art, showcasing our DEW athletes in a unique way and continuously encouraging the DEW Nation to chase that feeling for themselves.”

A recent study by Lightwave found that 80% of sponsored athletes at Dew Tour believe that their skate performance is as much an art form as it is a professional sport. Lightwave’s analysis was based on professional skaters’ physiological responses to the thrill of skateboarding, including heart rate, electro dermal activity (changes in the skin conductance), and motion. The initiative is the debut project to come out of Lightwave Studio, a division of the company focused on creating inspiring and inventive art using emotion data.

“Lightwave’s aim is to capture the emotion of the world’s most culturally and socially significant events,” said Rana June, CEO of Lightwave. “This year’s Dew Tour provides an exemplary use case of our technology because we’re able to reveal deep emotional insights into the thrill of competition and visualize them in a brand-new way.”

To collect the data top skaters, including competing Dew Tour riders and Mountain Dew athletes Sean Malto and Curren Caples, opted-in to wear a high-end wearable device measuring heart rate, blood volume pulse, skin temperature, electro dermal activity and motion which transmitted biofeedback in real-time to Lightwave’s analytics engine. Lightwave then analyzed this data using applied neuroscience techniques, such as measuring orienting responses and heart rate variability, to gain insight into the emotional intensity of the skating experience.

The output at Dew Tour is a first-of-its-kind art exhibition reimagining the athletes’ data featuring generative, code-based artwork that visually transforms the feeling of doing – in this case, the feeling of professional athletes skateboarding and competing. This exhibit combines two emotion tracking technologies – biofeedback measurement and facial coding – and will transform both athlete and guest data throughout Dew Tour weekend into completely unique and beautiful data-driven pieces of artwork, unique to each athlete. At the end of the art viewing experience, a custom-built skateboard wall will use the facial reactions of guests to generate a piece of art based on these reactions.

“The technology that Mountain Dew and Lightwave used to create ‘The Art of Doing’ at Dew Tour is incredible,” commented pro skateboarder and Mountain Dew athlete Sean Malto. “It’s really cool to see my emotions while skateboarding come to life visually!”

Check out Sean Malto’s “The Art of Doing” artistic emotional biodata around “the feeling of doing” while skateboarding here.

For more information about Lightwave visit www.lightwave.company. To check the unique installation out in person, head to the Dew Tour in Long Beach Calif. at the Long Beach Convention Center from Thursday, June 15 through Sunday, June 18, 2017. Follow the conversation at #DewTour and #DoTheDew or via @DewTour and @MountainDew.

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About Mountain Dew:

Mountain Dew, a product of PepsiCo Americas Beverages, is the No. 1 flavored carbonated soft drink in the U.S. With its one-of-a-kind citrus taste, Mountain Dew exhilarates and quenches with every sip. In addition to original Mountain Dew^® and Diet Mountain Dew^®, the permanent DEW product line includes Mountain Dew Code Red^®, Mountain Dew LiveWire^®, Mountain Dew Throwback^®, Mountain Dew^® Pitch Black™ Mountain Dew Voltage^® and Mountain Dew White Out^®. For more information, check out www.mountaindew.com, www.facebook.com/mountaindew or follow on Twitter @mountaindew.

About Dew Tour:

Dew Tour is an innovative contest series and content platform that brings together the world’s best skateboarders, snowboarders, skiers, artists, brands and fans in a celebration of creativity and style.

In 2016, TEN: The Enthusiast Network, publisher of TRANSWORLD SKATEBOARDING, TRANSWORLD SNOWBOARDING, SNOWBOARDER, POWDER, NEWSCHOOOLERS, and GRINDTV became the official strategic partner to lead content production, execution and event staging for the Dew Tour. Working in close collaboration with TEN’s core action sports media brands and in partnership with DEW®, Dew Tour continues to progress events and content, bringing millions of action sports fans engaging stories and experiences across digital and broadcast mediums. In addition to Dewtour.com and TEN’s digital network, Dew Tour’s summer and winter events are broadcast on NBC.

About Lightwave:

A pioneer in the emotion tech space, Lightwave’s technology gathers and processes biometric data to measure emotional data through the use of sensor devices. This data is used to better understand physical and emotional responses to experiences – ranging from films, concerts, behavioral research and sporting events. Through its art division Lightwave Studio, this emotion data is transformed to create unforgettable fine art experiences. To learn more about Lightwave, visit www.lightwave.company.