2024
Specter[al]s of Nature
Specter[al]s of Nature is an immersive art-science installation that translates four decades of satellite-based Earth observation into volumetric matter, moving image, and spatial experience. Developed in collaboration with climate scientist Alan Belward and geo-spatial data scientist Luca De Felice, the project transforms remote sensing data on rivers, lakes, and wetlands into translucent volumetric forms produced through voxel-based multi-material printing and a large-scale video cartography. Environmental transformation becomes accessible as a material, perceptual, and spatial condition.
At the center of the installation are four data-informed volumetric bodies that hold temporal change within their internal structure. Their forms are generated from shifting water boundaries across time, while their material composition preserves gradients, densities, traces, and spectral variation derived from long-term observation. Produced through high-resolution multi-material 3D printing, these works embody a fabrication logic in which voxel-level control enables data to be articulated volumetrically rather than represented only on the surface. In this way, the project positions additive manufacturing as a medium for environmental knowledge and for new aesthetic languages of matter.
A large-scale video environment extends this material translation into an immersive field of living cartography. Multispectral satellite imagery unfolds across visible and non-visible bands, revealing water bodies as dynamic spatial systems shaped by seasonal rhythms, infrastructural intervention, extraction, and climate change. Viewers enter an environment in which planetary processes become perceptible through motion, scale, and atmosphere. The installation creates a relation between body and dataset, situating perception within expanded temporal and environmental registers.
Credits
Specter[al]s is commissioned by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) as part of the SciArt Resonances IV program.
Collaborating scientists and policymakers: Alan Belward, Luca De Felice, Peter Strobl, and Elahe Rajabiani.
Production Collaboration: Stratasys Ltd.
With the generous support of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport (BMKOES)/Division IV: Arts and Culture
Exhibitions
NaturArchy, iMAL, Art Center for Digital Cultures & Technology – Koolmijnenkaai, Belgium, 2024
EU Green Week, Directorate General Environment, Charlemagne building, Brussels, Belgium, 2024
Taiwan Design Week: The Gateway, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park Taipei City, Taiwan, 2024
Jardin Albertos Festival, Estuvia Fria, Lisbon, Portugal, 2025
Festival della Meraviglia, Laveno Mombello e Luino (VA), Italy, 2025
Fluviale: Along the Line, Fassfabrik, Vienna, Austria, 2025
Publications