The Tides Within Us & EVOLVER

We Flow into the World, and the World Flows into Us — The Beauty of Blood Flow

The partners present a behind-the-scenes documentary on the series of audio-immersive and VR installations created in collaboration and driven by their shared amazement about the human body. The works explore notions of interconnectivity between humans, the environment, and digital technology. Following the journey of oxygen through the body, the installations reveal the human connection with the environment through every breath and each heartbeat.

The creators explored the beauty and wonder of the human body from a deliberately new perspective. Using medical blood flow reconstructions and a supersized digital model of a cardiovascular system, and running particle simulations through it, the representation of our bodies is revealed in ways never seen before.  

Pushing the frontiers of media art and science engagement, these mind-expanding works allow audiences to explore the spatial installations physically, rediscovering the human body as landscape, and the miracle of blood flow in the heart deep inside the body regardless of gender, age, and race. As attention zooms inwards to the tree-like lungs, where oxygen meets the blood flow, up to the brain, down to the limbs, to the fingers and toes and further to the cellular levels of the body, the audience becomes aware how the cycle of respiration connects us one to another and to the natural world. 

‘The Tides Within Us’

The Institute's expertise in digital medicine and the MR-Lab research has enabled Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) to work with medical data at the bleeding edge of capturing techniques. The result is a series of stunning interactive screens that allow the audience to explore the human ecosystem. Scientific data sets that peer deep into the human body formed the starting point of this artwork. This collaboration has opened new ways of seeing and experiencing the human body. As immersive technology continues to evolve, offering new platforms for experiential and embodied learning, the potential for this collaboration grows too. The ultimate goal of the project is to change the way people learn and think about themselves in relation to the environment. Where does the human body end, and where does it begin?

 ‘EVOLVER’

EVOLVER from Marshmallow Laser Feast is a collective virtual reality experience which drops audiences deep inside the landscape of the body, following the flow of oxygen through our branching ecosystem, to a single ‘breathing’ cell. Through this transcendental narrative, it becomes clear that breath not only sparks life, but also connects us to the natural world through the cycle of respiration. The datasets provided by Fraunhofer MEVIS were vital to the development of EVOLVER, where they provided a range of custom assets, including full-body MRI scans and MRA exams of a volunteer, alongside blood flow data and consulting for CT scan assets, to form the project's core human body. In addition to the Institute’s primary mission – developing real-world software solutions for severe diseases' image-and-data-supported early detection, diagnosis, and therapies – Fraunhofer MEVIS scientists are committed to raising awareness about how digital transformation influences health care. They develop experiential SciArt projects to stimulate critical dialog, reach new audiences, and foster a diverse future R&D landscape and ownership of new technologies.