2023
An experimental installation.
Combines physical motors and real-world imagery with digital screens and 3D motion, exploring the tension between material presence and virtual experience.
Living Things
Let me walk you through the process.
But first — just so you have it in mind — here’s the full installation. What you’re seeing is an island.
A living one. A self-contained ecosystem.
This personal project, my final work in the design academy, became a space for experimentation and stepping beyond familiar boundaries.
I knew I wanted to create something deliberately uncertain.
Something to pull me away from grids, structure, and clean logic.
Naturally, that meant facing a lot of open questions: What is this? What’s the medium? The scale? The material? In moments like this, I believe the best place to start is with what is clear.
The starting point:
What’s already clear to me?
1. Motion
To dive into the power of movement — how motion can bring still objects to life, like a kind of Pinocchio effect. In biology, after all, one of the basic markers of life is the ability to move.
2. Lexicon
To create a personal visual archive — a large one — rich in texture, material, and form. A place to collect before making connections.
3. Unexpected links
To draw lines between unrelated elements. To let different worlds — sometimes clashing, sometimes aligning — challenge and shape one another.
4. Hidden systems
To expose what usually stays unnoticed:
the ecosystems that quietly exist in the background of our lives — in our bodies, in the streets, in the ground beneath us. Systems that function on their own terms, whether or not we pay attention.
I took apart digital waste — peeling back plastic shells to expose the raw physical systems inside everyday electronics: computers, screens, headphones, printers, thermometers.
This last point led me to explore hidden systems in my surroundings.I began collecting, researching, and building a material and visual archive:A failed attempt at growing mushrooms became a sealed jar full of living micro-organisms.
I searched for discarded materials in urban ruins, adding another layer of forms and textures.
At some point, the archive itself became overwhelming — I needed to stop and lay it all out visually, to understand it better. So I created a physical arrangement: a kind of working board.
From there, I kept moving, expanding — and began creating a series of drawings inspired by microbiological structures. Not necessarily pieces I would use directly, but studies to sharpen my sense of what looks alive.
In this drawing the material samples started to influence the forms.
At this point, I had enough material. It was time to narrow down, to begin composing.
To see what happens.
And soon enough — things started to move. An initial, fragile creature emerged. It was primitive, temporary, mechanical — and I loved that. It opened a space for imagination.
And if you listen closely, you’ll hear squeaks and mechanical sounds — an integral part of the final experience >>>
From there, I created dozens more.I tested simple mechanisms to give them motion.Even the most basic movements — left to right, or slow rotation — were enough.
With the physical layer taking shape, I wanted to explore a contrasting space — a digital one. A space where the rules of gravity don’t apply. A space for visual conclusions born from the research. I tried different things. Played.
Eventually, it led me to 3D.A medium with fewer constraints.I built three digital worlds.In each: three cameras.
Each screen in the installation shows a different perspective of the same world — all running simultaneously.
Sound was added as well — a synthesised blend of recordings: From a dog’s breath and warm heartbeats to the cold hum of a fridge or a washing machine.
And finally — the world that would hold all of this.
I used polyurethane as the first layer — a material rooted in construction, with volume and an organically growing shape.On top of it, I placed soil.
On top of that — moss.Moss brought the project back to biology.It added texture, scent, and a living quality to the structure.
So here it is. Enjoy the images.
At the end of the exhibition, the installation began to take on a life of its own.