Projects
Soft Sirens
Soft Sirens
A future immersive installation that reimagines our embodied connection with the natural world, creating a speculative environment where audiences see, hear and feel their interconnectedness with living systems.
Through Explore, I will develop a future immersive installation: Soft Sirens. The project reimagines our embodied connection to the natural world, creating speculative environments in which audiences can see, hear and feel their interconnectedness with living systems.
The sculptures will draw inspiration from species whose signals of environmental stress are often difficult for humans to perceive: lichens, migratory birds, and deep-sea isopods. Each work will respond in real time to human presence through visual, auditory, and haptic feedback, creating a heightened experience of our impact on more than human worlds.
Explore
£5,000
Aims of the project
The fund will support the prototyping of three responsive systems for Soft Sirens. The first is interactive projection, developing responsive visuals in Unity and integrating them with TouchDesigner and live sensor data.
The second is a responsive sound system that shifts in tone and texture as participants move through the space. The third builds on my existing experience designing responsive kinetic sculpture, using the funding to test haptic technologies such as vibration motors and pneumatic systems to generate distinct somatic responses.
This development process will equip me with the technical skills and practical knowledge needed to realise Soft Sirens as an immersive installation that harnesses technology as an empathetic tool for engaging audiences with the climate emergency.
Soft Sirens
Isobel Jo Leonard
Artist
she/her
I am a Northumbrian artist working primarily in sculpture and installation. My practice explores our emotional and physical disconnection from the natural world and the indicators of ecological disruption. I create heightened interactions with objects and space, using electronic and mechanical interactions, alongside bio-fabricated materials to invite conversations about ecological responsibility and climate futures.
Influenced by my dual heritage, I draw upon comparative mythologies from Chinese and European traditions. These references inform an animistic and ritualised understanding of nature, which manifests through interactive, audiovisual and performative elements within my installations
I am committed to open-source learning and regularly share experiments with biomaterials and open hardware online. I plan to share my research into immersive technologies also, to support wider access and development of their creative applications.
