Having fully recovered from his 2014 “sexual assault,” actor Shia LaBeouf is back to his old performance art ways, this time with a project asking fans to follow his heart. Literally.
The 28-year-old, sporting a glorious rat-tail hairstyle, has been attending the South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX, this week, where he’s been streaming the beat of his heart online for fans to hear.
According to the Independent, LaBeouf is working in collaboration with his #IAMSORRY crew, Nastja Sade Ronkko and Luke Turner, on a project called Follow My Heart. Shia tweeted:
“When people say, ‘listen to your heart,’ they are urging us to turn in to the loving side of our selves; the imaginative, the intuitive, the compassionate, the inner wisdom we all possess. They are telling us to listen to our passion,” a statement from the group reads.
With our physical distance collapsed by the networks, that innermost and most intimate of rhythms will be rendered immediate on our digital screens. Like cats have whiskers, we too are born with a guidance system: our heart. It is our inner GPS, our map, and our guide. It promises to lead us down the path of maximum fulfillment. If you #FollowMyHeart, it may lead to yours.
Listen to LaBeouf’s heartbeat here.
The actor spoke during a panel discussion at the festival:
Every time my heart rate goes up, I’ll stop, breathe and focus on getting my heartrate lower numerically… I’ve had panic attacks throughout most of my life, whether it’s at work or whether I’ve been drinking heavy. I haven’t had that for a while, and this is a constant reminder to stay at a constant numerical place to find peace.
Labeouf was the subject in a week-long performance art show-turned-spectacle last February in Los Angeles titled: #IAmSorry. Vowing to remain silent, the Fury actor allowed strangers to enter his room, where he would be sitting alone in a chair with a paper bag over his head, which read: “I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE.”
That’s when the alleged sexual assault occurred. Shia later told a reporter of the event: “One woman who came with her boyfriend, who was outside the door when this happened, whipped my legs for ten minutes and then stripped my clothing and proceeded to rape me.”