The Collapse of a Microcosm is a site-specific installation that engages in a continuous, ephemeral dialogue with its environment—a living archive of the present as it fades into the past. Like an organic system, it remembers and reconstructs, forming a sensory record of its surroundings and the presence of its visitors.

At its core is a distributed network of artificial memory modules, or ‘memory vectors’, arranged in a multi-layered loop. Each module includes RGB LEDs, photosensors responsive to both visible and non-visible light, and a miniature speaker that signals its activity. Light sensed from the environment or from another module is delayed and transmitted onward, tinting the space with echoes of past impressions. This recursive choreography creates a web of sensing and propagation, responding to fluctuating ambient light, human movement within the gallery and to its own output.

Throughout the day, each unit accumulates and transmits traces of its environment, forming a fragile, nonlinear memory that reverberates into both night and day. Light and sound pulse through the space, creating a temporal field where presence leaves an imprint and is gently re-inscribed into the system.

Each memory vector emits a distinct tone, producing a sonic imprint—a contrast between past and present. This creates a layered, disharmonic soundscape that evolves and develops, where artificial and natural rhythms converge.

The result is a visual and sonic tapestry that weaves together time, sensation, and technological perception. The installation is not a reflection of transformation but an active participant in it. Composed of photons and vibrations, it becomes a medium of transition in which human presence is embedded within its sensory ecology. Shadows and movements are transformed into sound and light — data that listens, remembers, and responds.

In this iteration, located in Moss (Norway) and overlooking the Oslo fjord, the piece resonates with the ever-changing coastal weather and light of the fjord. It responds intimately to the local rhythms of water, wind and light, which shape its memory and expression.