Cardio-Cartography: Manifesto for an Art of Vital Cost

In an era saturated by digital simulacra, this manifesto establishes Cardio-Cartography, a research-creation methodology that grounds the value of an artwork in the vital cost of an engaged body. As a counterpoint to the optimization logic of the Quantified Self, the protocol substitutes an ethics of expenditure for an economy of performance. It abolishes the kilometre in favour of the heartbeat (Total Cardiac Cost – CCT) and introduces tools such as the Vital Cost Index (VCI) to valorize effort, and the Proof of Presence (PoP) to certify it. Rooted in Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, this approach mobilizes AI as a listening prosthesis to transform lived experience into an embodied, proven, and non-delegable artwork-trace.