You Distort Two Perfections – Depth as Intrusion

This installation explores how human presence disturbs systems of order, unfolding within architectural space through light, depth, and subtle interaction. This work explores the encounter between two autonomous systems: a geometric order inspired by Islamic and early Escher-like tessellations, and a slime-mold inspired agent network that searches for paths within that geometry. Both systems represent different forms of “perfection”: a rigid mathematical structure and a decentralized biological intelligence. The work introduces a third element — real-time depth data captured from the physical presence of viewers. This depth signal acts as an intrusion into the system. As viewers move through the space, the geometric surface becomes distorted by depth information, causing the ordered structure to collapse or bend. At the same time, the slime mold agents continue searching for paths within this unstable terrain, sometimes hesitating, deviating, or forming unexpected asymmetries. The work is visually restrained and largely monochrome. Instead of color, minimal lighting and depth-derived gradients produce subtle shifts between light and shadow. The presence of the viewer becomes visible not through direct representation, but through the disturbance it creates in the system. In this way, the installation stages a fragile balance between order and disruption, structure and life, presence and absence.