Experiences from the Outside World is an innovative project commissioned by the Savannah College of Art and Design through the Alumni Atelier program in Savannah, Georgia, United States. The artwork, a unique combination between still-life photography, motion and sound, celebrates our cultural relationship with the natural world, and challenges and amplifies the way we see, hear, and remember images in the digital age.

By re-imagining still-life photography and new media for the future, I designed expressive and beautiful living stills—a hybrid of still and moving images that reveal perpetual motion. The living stills are enabled by custom image processing techniques to create interactive experiences that go beyond the traditional photographic image.

This contemporary interpretation of the traditional still-life genre is displayed in a lifelike art-viewing experience through the 27″ museum quality frame developed and produced by Meural in New York. In addition, I partnered with artists Lexi Hanson, Brittany Reidy, and Christian Dunbar to pair the set design of each living still with unique materials created through traditional and organic processes.

The living stills are made up of several spontaneous yet controlled moving elements that exist infinitely, to produce a contemplative and thought-provoking experience. The scenes draw inspiration from Savannah’s natural beauty. With animations of subtropical imagined gardens and forests, fruits, butterflies, shellfish, and beehives, the living stills reflect the dynamic mix of local nature and culture.

Each living still aims to transform photography from a static art form into a vehicle that collects and stores the acoustic and motion characteristics of the natural space and its connection to our visual sense. The colors and motion reflect real-world moments of wonderment and reflection. A naturalistic soundscape accompanies the living stills, bringing to light the nature’s complex sounds abstracted into new context.