The Rise and Fall of the Alpha
A 26-minute documentary. A biometric installation. One extinction, told through your own heartbeat.
The Rise and Fall of the Alpha pairs a 26-minute documentary with a biometric interactive software installation that connects each participant's physiological data to the story of the Newfoundland wolf, extinct for over a century, but never fully gone from the province's memory.
Participants move through an emotional arc built as a "lie detector"-style sequence of questions, their heart rate and breathing shaping and responding to the unfolding narrative in real time. The result is not a film you simply watch: it's a story your body helps tell.
The project builds directly toward Beta: The Sensory Wolf, expanding the same biometric framework to include the Atlantic wolffish, and toward a public gallery installation launching October 31, 2026, at Signal Hill.
Development Team
