Case study · Live visual installation · Avant Mutek
Murmuration
A hundred phones, one organism.
Murmuration is a live visual installation with no author on the night. The projected scene is generated in real time out of whoever happens to be in the room: each person joins from their own phone, and every gesture they make enters a shared field where it mixes with everyone else’s.
It was presented at Avant Mutek, at Mooi Space in Toronto, on May 30, 2026. Joining takes seconds — a QR code on the wall, a web page, nothing to install — which matters more than it sounds. An installation that asks for a download gets the audience that already downloads things. One that runs in a browser gets the whole room.
The name is the mechanic. A starling murmuration has no leader; the shape comes out of thousands of birds each reacting to the handful nearest them. This works the same way. You can find your own contribution in the projection for a second or two, and then you lose it — not because it was discarded, but because it has become part of something none of you could have aimed at. Nobody in the room is directing the piece, and everybody is.
How it works
Scan, and you're in
A QR code on the projection opens a web page. No app store, no sign-up, no account — the phone already in your pocket becomes the controller.
Your gesture joins the flock
What you do on your phone enters a shared scene running live in the room. You can pick out your own contribution for a moment, then lose it as the field reorganizes.
The room makes the picture
With the whole room connected, nobody is steering. The scene is the sum of everyone in it, which is the only way it can be made.
Credits
- Created by — Alex MacLean
- Occasion — Avant Mutek — Mooi Space, Toronto
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