Burning Man 2018

Installed at the heart of Burning Man 2018, a temporary city built and decommissioned every summer in Black Rock Desert, Succulent Machines collides the mechanical and the organic, the robotic and the natural.

Working with Marpi, I created a variety of 3D elements, experimenting with various forms to enable the undulating generative chain of gears. Displayed on a 360-degree projection mapped surface that wraps the base of the effigy of the Man, Succulent Machines is partially generative, partially controlled by a Leap Motion sensor hidden by a plant. Touching the plant, audiences have a seemingly tactile, yet abstract connection with its living genetic code, and through play they discover the brilliant underlying patterns that emerge.