Living Matter Studio is a collaborative practice rooted in biomimicry, ephemera, and material inquiry.
We draw from intelligent natural systems—those that adapt, self-organize, and evolve—to design sculptures that transform over time.
Our work treats matter as more than a medium; it is research, resonance, and response. Through felt, physical encounters, we create emotional experiences that connect audiences to the systems they are part of. Each project is invention and intervention—a living proposal for how we might relate differently to the material world.
Symphony of Circuit and Soil – SFER IK, Mexico
Winner of SFER IK “Art in Nature” award. An immersive installation that embodies the slow erosion and reformation of matter. Constructed from earth and reclaimed materials, it explores the tension between permanence and decay.
Sound is triggered by movement and forms a shifting dialogue between visitors, the landscape, and the passage of time. The work dissolves and regenerates in response to presence. Together, the earth, sound and gold hyperbolic void invite the contemplation of infinity—not as a concept, but as a process unfolding in real time.
Symphony of Circuit and Soil: rammed earth and interactive, AI driven, sound installation
The sedimentary sandstone layers of Table Mountain
Rammed earth: regional soil, construction remnants; ocean plastics
Listen to the immersive sound experience
Symphony of Circuit and Soil features an immersive audio soundscape composed by renowned sound innovator and film score composer, Graeme Revell. Using custom AI-modulated software, the sound environment responds in real time to human presence and the rhythms of the jungle.
Motion sensors in the museum detect subtle shifts in movement and proximity of visitors, triggering a layered composition of audio stems. These stems are crafted from field recordings of local wildlife— tropical birds, cicadas—as well as ambient sounds like wind in the canopy, distant thunder, and the hum of insects.
The software rearranges and modulates these stems based on activity in the space: a still moment might evoke a sparse, meditative atmosphere, while more movement activates a richer, more dynamic sonic field. The result is a living score—never repeating, always evolving—blurring the boundary between human presence, machine interpretation, and the natural world.
Les Mondes Emboîtés — Jardins d’Étretat, France
In the dramatic landscape of Les Jardins d’Étretat, our team proposes a site-responsive biomimetic installation. Inspired by the mathematical precision and poetic beauty of the internal structures of seashells, which in turn mimic the sedimentary layers of the cliffs of Normandy, Les Mondes Emboîtés (“Nested Worlds”) explores the unseen order of the natural world—where the microscopic meets the monumental.
The installation consists of modular dichroic glass sculptures, their forms derived from the laminate layers of sedimentary rock, and the similar brick-and-mortar layers that give mother-of-pearl its characteristic color and strength. These two self-organizing geometries are iconic to the environment of Normandy, reflected in the ever present geology to the hidden worlds inside oyster and abalone shells.
Les Mondes Emboîtés serves as a contemporary counterpart to the grottoes and follies of historical gardens—an architectural gesture merging human craftsmanship with the profound logic of nature.
As the sun moves across the sky, these translucent lenses capture and refract light, casting shifting spectral patterns onto the garden, evoking the iridescence of microscopic marine life and the cosmic order embedded within nature’s architecture.
Les Mondes Emboîtés: dichroic glass archways on the cliffs of Normandy
The microscopic multilayered structure of mother-of-pearl
Natural iridescence emerges from multilayered microstructures.
See how structure creates color.
Color in mother-of-pearl and dichroic glass is not achieved through pigment—it emerges from structure.
In both nature and material science, multilayer interference creates “iridescence”. As light enters stacked, nanoscale layers of differing refractive indices, some wavelengths reflect while others transmit. These overlapping reflections interfere: amplifying certain colors, cancelling others. The result is structural color — vivid, shifting, and angle-dependent.
This principle is found in nacre, where organic and mineral layers produce a soft, diffused iridescence. In our work, we transpose this logic into dichroic glass: a synthetic material composed of microscopically thin metal oxides layered onto glass. Like nacre, it filters light through form, not dye. Unlike nacre, it offers sharper contrast between transmitted and reflected color — as seen in these images:
The first captures that split made visible: magenta in reflection, cyan in shadow. Material becomes lens, boundary, and interference pattern — a structure that reveals light by shaping its path.
The second image shows how multilayer coatings split light by wavelength. As light strikes each boundary between layers of differing refractive index, portions are reflected while others pass through. These partial reflections interfere with one another, amplifying or cancelling specific wavelengths depending on angle and layer thickness.
To Weave the Sky — Kamiyama, Japan
A large-scale woven installation that reimagines how people engage with the landscape of Kamiyama as part of their longstanding Artist in Residency Program . Suspended above the forest floor, the artwork is made entirely of rope, forming walkways, bridges, and seated areas within the canopy. Visitors can walk, sit, and float in the installation, which weaves organically between trees, filling the empty space. As participants explore, they experience a shift in perception—suspended in the air, yet grounded by the trees. Looking down at the forest floor and up into the sky, they are immersed in a state of reflection and wonder.
Drawing from Shinto traditions and Japan’s deep relationship with nature, To Weave the Sky becomes a floating threshold between the physical and the unseen. The woven structure mirrors network-building systems—cellular networks found seen at the micro and macro scale—that sustain life by distributing information and fostering symbiosis. These forms reinforce both the physical integrity of the installation and its conceptual foundation, highlighting how connection supports ecosystems, infrastructure, and communities. Aligning with Kamiyama’s vision of sustainable coexistence, To Weave the Sky makes visible the unseen forces that hold our world together.
To Weave the Sky: a woven, climbable, forest experience
A natural Voronoi Pattern formed by leaf cells
Irregular webbing follows the mathematical rules of a “Voronoi Pattern”
See how nature forms cellular patterns.
Voronoi patterns emerge when space is divided by proximity — each point shaping a territory defined by what lies closest. This creates interlocking cells that appear across biology: in insect wings, giraffe coats, garlic, muscle fibers. These forms aren’t designed from above, but arise from local negotiation — a system organizing itself through relation.
The animation shows this process in motion. The second image captures its presence in living matter. We use Voronoi geometry to think with structure: as a logic for weaving space, shaping flow, and responding to context. In Kamiyama, this helped us lay paths that adapt to wind, sun, and terrain.
Voronoi is more than a pattern. It is a material intelligence — decentralized, emergent, alive.
Softcore War — Cape Town, South Africa
In “Softcore War,” Living Matter Studio delves into the delicate balance of ecological systems and the transformative nature of materials. The exhibition features two key installations that embody the studio’s commitment to exploring the intersections of art, science, and the environment.
Closed System: This installation presents a pair of sealed glass containers, each narrating a story of interdependence. In one, animal bones immersed in hydrochloric acid undergo a gradual dissolution, releasing carbon dioxide. Adjacent to it, a thriving plant rooted in soil absorbs this CO₂, sustaining its growth. This closed-loop system poetically illustrates the cycles of decay and regeneration inherent in nature.
Iron Lung: A monumental pair of artificial lungs, constructed from pink garbage bags, rhythmically inflate and deflate through a computer-controlled fan system. This kinetic sculpture emulates the act of breathing, prompting reflections on the synthetic replication of life processes and the vulnerability of human-engineered systems
Through these works, Living Matter Studio continues its exploration of intelligent natural systems and material transformation, fostering a deeper connection between audiences and the living systems they are part of.
Closed System: CO₂ bubbles forming as bone dissolves in acid
Closed System: Glass, hydrochloric acid, animal bones, soil, plant
Iron Lung: Pink plastic refuse bags, fan system, custom electronics
Rise and Remain — Bedford, South Africa
A land-based sculpture rooted in the dolerite geology of South Africa’s Winterberg mountains. These dense volcanic slabs — formed through natural fracturing and erosion — are lifted and re-planted into arcs across the grassland near Bedford, a small agricultural town in slow decline. Each stone is up to 10 meters long, buried deep for stability, forming a structure that can be walked, crossed, or entered.
The concept layout echoes the radial bloom of Aloe ferox, whose spiked form inspired the sculpture’s spatial rhythm. Both aloe and dolerite endure harshness — emerging from arid ground with resilience and poise. This work doesn’t seek to regenerate by growth, but by anchoring — offering structure without domination.
In a town where farms vanish and memory dries up, Emergent Monoliths becomes a new kind of root system — geological, communal, slow.
We Rise and Remain: Upright dolerite slabs, unearthed and re-planted, form a line of deliberate tilts
A dolerite (diabase) slab, resting where erosion left it.
Aloe africana in bloom — a geometry of resilience that echoes through the stones we raise
The migration of rock and people.
Dolerite is a volcanic rock that forms deep underground, migrating upward as molten intrusions between ancient sedimentary layers. Over millions of years, tectonic uplift and surface erosion expose it — long slabs rising through the land like memory under pressure.
This geologic movement mirrors the human migrations now reshaping the region. As people leave rural areas of South Africa — driven by collapse, climate, and disconnection — the dolerite stays. Its slow ascent marks a counterpoint to departure.
In our work, we plant these slabs upright. Not as monuments, but as witnesses. What rises is not always what leaves. What remains can still speak.
Resonant Terrains — Oaxaca, Mexico
Resonant Terrains investigates the auditory ecologies of place. Through field workshops and community recording sessions, working with local youth, artisans, musicians, elders, and fellow residents to gather a living catalogue of environmental and cultural soundscapes. These include the ocean, wind, insects, traditional music, and spoken histories.
These recordings are curated into a spatial soundscape transmitted through a series of handmade acoustic vessels—abstracted clay forms, each one unique, shaped by participants. The forms are incorporate embedded speakers connected to a custom electronic system for continuous playback of the sound archive. Suspended throughout a unique architectural space in Oaxaca, the vessels will transform the space into a contemplative, multi-sensory acoustic environment. Listeners do not merely observe, but attune.
Resonant Terrains: a collaborative sound sculpture
Native Purpura sea snails inspire the forms
Custom embedded miniature speakers