Philip Beesley’s Stunning Semi-Living Sculptures

Aurora, Nuit Blanche, Toronto, 2010—image by HyperSapiens

Last month the third installment of Thrilling Wonder Stories took place, where technologists, artists, futurists, and authors gathered together to let their imaginations speculate on what marvels the future may have in store for us. One of the artists was experimental architect Philip Beesley.

His bizarre-looking sculptures and installations are definitely a thrilling wonder story. They’re semi-living eco-systems created from machinery and artificial materials that can act like filtering systems for their environments, combining geotextiles with membranic structures to form strange concoctions that explore how architecture might function in the future. We’ve heard of interactive architecture, where AI meets interior design to augment your home, but nothing that looks this ethereal and beautiful—with artificial foliage and web-like matrices, Beesley’s designs look organic, otherworldly and awesome.

These responsive creatures twitch, twist and turn thanks to reflexive sensors, microprocessors and other embedded electronics that make them imitate the processes found in biological forms. For instance, the sculpture Sargasso is something the artist calls a “liminal social environment.” It produces a synthetic hybrid soil by filtering material from its surroundings using mechanical breathing and swallowing motions.

Beesley’s work has been shown all over the world at media conferences and art fairs alike, everything from Ars Electronica to the Venice Biennale. You can see more of his work on his website, as well as a selection of some of our favorite pieces below.

Sargasso: Luminato Festival—Toronto, Canada, 2011

Hylozoic Series: Stoa—Moscow, Russia, 2011

Saint-Exupery Field—Reims, France, 2011

Hylozoic Soil, SIGGRAPH, BioLogic Art exhibition, New Orleans, Louisiana – 2009

Hylozoic Soil—Mois Multi Festival, Quebec City, PQ, 2010

Images Philip Beesley Architecture Inc.