Vibrant Matters

Discover at Digital Design Weekend a special showcase of artworks developed as part of the MA in Information Experience Design at the Royal College of Art. These works are investigations into the vibrant lifeworlds and lifeways of the materials we inhabit. Connect with a fungal network, watch water come to life, listen as particles generate music and reconsider your own relationship to the organic and inorganic world.

“In a knotted world of vibrant matter, to harm one section of the web may very well be to harm oneself. Such an enlightened or expanded notion of self-interest is good for humans.”
Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter

Discover in this showcase a selection of artworks by the following students:

Emergent Forms by Matthew Woodham
Installation featuring encapsulated pseudo-organic structures. The algorithmically generated forms undergo continual transformations with changing conditions.

MYcorrhizal by Bryan Yueshen Wu, Devanshi Rungta and Laura Selby
Extended-reality sonic experience mapping an interconnection between mycelium and beings. A duet of worlds between data signals, entities and scales of existence. Audiences can encounter and influence the sonic ecosystem around them and reflect upon their role in the acoustic ecology of the spaces we exist within.

Sonic Contamination by Laura Selby
Sonic Contamination is a series of outcomes challenging our role and perceptions towards species existing on different scales of being, primarily the micro-scale. How can we become more consciously connected to the microworlds within and beyond us? Is it possible to develop deeper relational understanding and care in listening?

Root for Thought by Yue Song
An immersive and interactive mixed-media installation that explores mycelium’s “underground” communication system! Fabric meets technology, illuminating nature’s wisdom and the beauty of coexistence.

Evolution by Bryan Yueshen Wu and Ke Peng
Immersive audiovisual installation that celebrates the vitality of inorganic materials. This project aims to inspire a new perception of non-living substances and contribute to an ongoing philosophical debate on the nature of life and the relationship between the animate and the inanimate.

Special drop-in activity part of Digital Design Weekend, a free digital art and design festival taking place on 23 and 24 September, discover the full programme here: https://www.vam.ac.uk/digitaldesign