Nature of Man. Spatial Video Installation.

Nature of Man is a video installation discussing control, nature relationship and life. The installation was part of the Occupy Earth project, a collaboration between Parsons School of Design in New York and Aalto University in Helsinki.

In the center of the installation is an aquarium with living spirulina algae. It is surrounded by monitors with different representations which are controlled by microscopic footage of the spirulina.

Case Nature of Man - Rendering
Case Nature of Man - Growing spirulina

We found him lying on the floor here. Dead.
He used to spent all his time here. Visualising, measuring and analysing life.

Sometimes he wouldn’t leave his chapel for days.
He was obsessed. He wanted to find answers.

People visit from everywhere to see this room.
This is all we have from him. This is all he left behind.

Case Nature of Man - Setup 1
Case Nature of Man - Setup 2

The visuals are created with an openFrameworks sketch that generates the visuals based on microscopic footage of the algae. One big frame is sent to Mad Mapper via syphon. Mad Mapper splits the frame for different screens.

Video recording by Emily Sode. Programming & editing by Otso Sorvettula. Concept and description by Luis Celomundo.

Downloads & prototypes

Project site

Other projects

Team members

Otso Sorvettula

Luis Celomundo

Emily Sode

Involved organisations