Buko Studio: interactive light, sound and new media art, created by Chris Nichols

A digital exoskeleton for a peppercorn tree, shifting between camouflage, signal and ecological memory.

memory_feed is a responsive light and sound installation by Chris Nichols, developed through Buko Studio for City of Melbourne's Test Sites program. Attached to a peppercorn tree in Merritts Place Reserve, the work uses flexible curved LED screens to form a digital exoskeleton around the tree.

As viewers approach, the surface transforms, revealing a living stream of colours and patterns drawn from the endemic plants that once populated this site.

The work asks whether digital technologies, usually associated with commercial signage, attention economies and the glow of urban light pollution, can be redirected to loop the past back into view or imagine new ecological futures. The screens act as woven extensions of the tree and as speculative portals, re-animating visual textures of species no longer present and acknowledging the layered histories held in the soil.

The City of Melbourne edition was accompanied by an original score by Dirk Peterson, blending microbat echolocation recordings with synthesisers into a subtle, atmospheric soundscape that attunes to what lies beyond human perception.

Site-specificPublic reserveCity of Melbourne Test Sitesmemoryfeed.live ↗

An adaptable sculpture that comes alive by synthesising the biofeedback of plants and their urban surroundings into living soundscapes and explosions of colour.

BioRhythm is a multi-sensory public artwork that transformed the junction of Greville Street and Grattan Gardens into an evolving landscape of plant biofeedback, colour, sound and light, from April to May 2024. It was first shown at Testing Grounds, Southbank, in 2023.

Using signals from endemic plants, the work translated living biological rhythms into a constantly changing sensory environment, inviting the public to encounter nature as an active presence within the city.

By blurring the lines between biology, technology and place, BioRhythm fosters learning and connection whilst igniting curiosity and discovery within the public realm. As people moved through the installation, they were invited to explore nature’s intrinsic role in urban environments through QR code-enhanced educational materials.

Presented by Buko Studio and Public Street. Designed by Buko Studio in collaboration with Brazilian designer Guilherme Giantini.

Site-specificPublic squarePlant biofeedbackbiorhythm.live ↗

Flexible LED forms move through the gallery like digital vines, behaving like an ecosystem that shifts in light and sound as visitors enter its field.

Stream of Consciousness – Daloy is a responsive installation of flexible LED forms. Inspired by organic systems but rendered through a hyper-contemporary medium, the work shifts in light and sound as visitors move through it.

Coded textures, organic scans and generative animations flow across the screens, evoking the invisible systems that move through air, language, memory, symbolism, the earth and the self.

A soundtrack by musician Berkay Mete triggers different instruments as the work elevates the viewer through shifting levels of intensity. Daloy is an introspective meditation on invisible systems, sensory entanglement and the constant flow of information that surrounds us.

✳ Winner — Ashley Crawford Prize, NotFair 2026Gallery installationResponsive LEDDaloy at MARS Gallery ↗