MARSHMALLOW LASER FEAST

MLF at SXSW: Can AI Feel? This?Sunday, March 9, at 10 AM, our?Creative Director, Barnaby Steel, takes the stage at?SXSW 2025?to plunge into one of the most provocative questions at the convergence of?tech, neuroscience, and creative intelligence: Can AI experience emotions without a body? Emotion isn’t just data. It’s deeply somatic, tangled in the biological web of gut instincts, micro-movements, and sensory perception. Neuroscience tells us that without emotion, humans literally can’t make decisions. So what happens when AI, an intelligence without a body, tries to simulate feeling? Can algorithms ever move beyond mimicry into something that induces presence, relationality, and embodied experience? Bringing together?neuroscience, art, and technology, this panel interrogates AI’s evolving role in how we?sense, connect, and create. SXSW (South by Southwest)?is the world’s leading festival of ideas, innovation, and creativity. Since 1987, it has brought together pioneers in?tech, film, music, and culture, a convergence of minds exploring the future. We’re thrilled to be part of the conversation, with?Barnaby Steel?representing?MARSHMALLOW LASER FEAST?on stage. Hilton Austin Downtown Sunday, March 9 | 10 AM Learn more:?https://lnkd.in/e2FNP3Rz

NYC peeps, last two days to see our show at bitforms gallery. Barnaby Steel will be there tomorrow afternoon giving tours, don’t miss it!

Next week,?MLF Creative Director, Barnaby Steel,?will make his way through the United States. First stop: bitforms gallery, New York City Entwined?marks MLF’s first solo exhibition in the US. Here, the cyclical intelligence of the natural world is revealed through an oscillation of breath, growth and decay. With the exhibition closing on March 8, Barnaby?will be hosting exhibition walkthroughs on?Wednesday, March 5, and Friday, March 7, from 4–6 PM. When & Where:?Wednesday, March 5 & Friday, March 7 from 4–6 PM at bitforms gallery, 131 Allen St, NYC RSVP: https://lnkd.in/dmapctC7 Next stop: SXSW, Austin On?Sunday, Barnaby will take the stage at?Hilton Austin Downtown?for a panel discussion on AI and emotional intelligence. This interdisciplinary conversation will explore AI’s evolving ability to perceive and simulate emotions, contrasting it with the embodied experience of human perception. When & Where:?Sunday 9 March, 10am?at Hilton Austin Downtown Learn more: https://lnkd.in/e2FNP3Rz Final stop: Los Angeles Barnaby will conclude his journey in?Los Angeles, where new conversations and connections will take shape. Wherever you are, come say hi, step into the dialogue, and experience the world of MLF.

The ocean is vast, and its inhabitants’ ways of being and perceiving are immeasurably diverse. Here, in this series of video artworks, sound becomes a beam of light, revealing fragments of the unseen through echolocation. At other times, it renders distant memories, carried by the fluid tapestry of time and oceanic space. In this liquid realm, moments unfold like sonic memories of life—a humpback’s migratory journey traced in undulating trajectories, or the thrilling descent of sperm whales diving into the great depths in search of sustenance. Even with our most advanced tools, we cannot fully unveil how these magnificent beings perceive their world. This is an invitation—a bridge between our imagination and umwelt; their lived sensory perspective. To perceive as they do is to merge the senses into one: a multisensory collage where vision, touch, taste, scent, and sound dissolve into a unique single awareness. It is to sense the world through vibrating molecules and resonant waves, where sound not only carries meaning but becomes the shape of the medium itself. It is a multisensory and multitemporal perception, weaving past, present, and possibility into a coherent, dynamic imagining of existence. Echoes of the Ocean / Ecos del océano Marshmallow Laser Feast? in dialogue with / en diálogo con Laboratorio de Aplicaciones Bioacústicas UPC Curated by Jose Luis de Vicente and Maria Brancós Barti Commissioned by Fundación Telefónica and Disseny Hub Barcelona (DHUB) 11 Feb - 7 September 2025 Telefonica Foundation Fundación Telefónica? Calle Fuencarral, 3 28004 Madrid

Breathing with the Forest, our immersive video installation illuminating the ecosystem surrounding a Capinuri tree, is opening tomorrow at Compton Verney in Warwickshire. Standing within the installation, surrounded by the pulsing rhythms of the rainforest, participants are invited to synchronise their breath with the life of the forest as they become connected and part of the forest ecosystem. Installed in Compton Verney's iconic Adam Hall, with its direct view to the landscape outside, the piece aims to inspire a sense of connection with the natural world. We hope to see you there: https://lnkd.in/dSdMiNmw OPEN IN WARWICKSHIRE: 8 February – 6 April 2025

Loved having such a positive and lively event at the start of the year. Congrats to Simon Cronshaw and Peter Tullin?for cultivating such a great gathering at?REMIX Summits - Culture, Tech & Entrepreneurship. My talk covered Sweet Dreams and our upcoming pieces at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Somerset House. New friends, please follow MARSHMALLOW LASER FEAST for more info!

We are delighted to announce Echoes of the Ocean, our first European monographic show opening on 11th of February at Telefonica Foundation in Madrid. The exhibition explores the sensory world of cetaceans, the hidden architects of life on Earth—plankton—and the cutting-edge frontiers of marine acoustic biology. Inviting audiences on a deep listening multi-sensory journey, the exhibition includes an open-eyed meditation space that immerses participants in the ocean’s rhythms through sound and vibration. Curated by Jose Luis de Vicente?and Maria Brancós Barti Commissioned by Espacio Fundación Telefónica and Disseny Hub Barcelona (DHUB) OPEN IN MADRID: 11 February - 7 September 2025 LEARN MORE: https://lnkd.in/e8H8VFyj

"The most spectacular work in the show" Thank you The Guardian for this glowing review of our installation: Fly Agaric I narrated by Merlin Sheldrake at the Somerset House SOIL exhibition. We are honoured to be part of this groundbreaking exhibition that unites visionary artists and thinkers from around the world to explore the remarkable power and potential of soil. Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/exkPyRdT Visit the exhibition and tell us your thoughts: https://lnkd.in/eeRg3RZS

We are delighted to be unveiling our new installation, Fly Agaric I, as part of SOIL: World Beneath Our Feet exhibition at Somerset House. Opening tomorrow at the Embankment Galleries, Fly Agaric I weaves the words and voice of renowned mycologist and author Merlin Sheldrake?into a living tapestry. Watch the Amanita muscaria mushroom pulse and oscillate, unveiling the hidden rhythms of the earth’s soil—a glimpse into the “home of the lives that give us life.” Fly Agaric I is part of our Poetics of Soil series illuminating the hidden kingdoms of life underground. This ongoing project reframes our relationship with soil and the diverse species it harbours—from trees and fungi to bacteria, archaea, and protozoa. OPEN: 23 Jan - 13 Apr 2025 VISIT: https://lnkd.in/eeRg3RZS

?? We did it! ?? We are beyond excited to share that Works of Nature has won the blooloop Innovation Award 2024 in the Immersive Experiences - Culture category! This solo show, which immerses visitors in the hidden forces of nature, has captured hearts and minds with its exploration of the rhythms that connect all life on Earth. We couldn’t be more proud of our incredible team and the vision we’ve brought to life! ?? A massive thank you to ACMI, the blooloop Innovation Awards for this honour and to everyone who’s supported us along the way. ?? ?? Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dCKydev9 #WorksOfNature #BlooloopInnovationAwards #ACMI #MarshmallowLaserFeast