Non-Quiescence: A Year without Sleep is an immersive installation that reflects on pause and what happens in its absence. Referencing Astrangia poculata, or Northern Star Coral, the installation integrates live and fossil coral forms, projection mapping, and an atmospheric soundscape. The Projection mapping across the live corals visualizes shifts in the coral’s microbiome over time, highlighting when microbial movement becomes more sparse and distanced during winter in response to climate change. The work questions how the elimination of pause moments due to environmental changes can affect all species on internal and external levels, as well as our connections to one another.

"From day one, I knew I wanted to create an immersive experience that transformed our audience into a coral microbiome. Originally, I drew a sketch of what would have been a coral polyp tent, where you would be entering into the coral microbiome and looking up to see an animated visualization of my data. Salma decided to play around with 3D prints, to use as sculpture instead, and ended up printing out several coral polyps and skeletons. She then overlaid animation on top of 4 coral polyps, that we fixed to the wall, and we placed the 3D skeletons on a podium near the floor. Salma also asked a friend to create a music track, and we were very pleased with the result. Having that additional element of music, with blue backlighting around the room, really made my immersive vision come to life. It was as if we were sent into the ocean!"

—Mia

"What made this especially meaningful is that Astrangia poculata is native to Rhode Island, and the images came directly from Mia's research lab. The combination of generative 3D modeling with real, original source images was genuinely exciting and a first for me."

—Salma