Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) are a collective of artists from London who work at the intersection of science, technology and art. With their installation Distortions in Spacetime, they take visitors on a journey into the darker corners of the universe and on a sensory encounter with the formation of a so-called stellar black hole. The immersive, audiovisual artwork creates images that translate astrophysical research and findings into a visual allegory.

Marshmallow Laser Feast are internationally recognised for their close collaboration with scientists, resulting in artworks that expand the perception of nature through immersive technologies. In 2021, they were invited by the Frankfurter Kunstverein to participate in the exhibition The Intelligence of Plants with their work Treehugger: Wawona.

Today, astrophysics have ever better ways of allowing our gaze to penetrate into the depths of the cosmos. However, the data and researchers’ mathematical calculations often remain inaccessible to laypeople. MLF use their art to attempt to translate the level of abstraction of mathematical theories into images for the general public. Distortions in Spacetime is dedicated to the formation of gravity, dying stars and black holes and relates these to our physical presence.

A stellar black hole is created when a huge mass of matter such as the core of a large dying star collapses. In the final moments of this collapse, matter is compressed to such an extent that its density goes to infinity. This extremely high density creates a point within the black hole at which the curvature of space-time is infinite and the laws of physics as we know them no longer apply: time stands still and gravity becomes so strong that not even light can escape its gravitational pull. The energy that forms this black hole unleashes a supernova explosion that fires the elements of life—carbon, oxygen, silicon, sulphur, calcium and iron—into space. Cosmic explosions give rise to the very elements from which new planets, our Earth, all living beings, plants, animals and ultimately us humans have emerged.

Visitors enter into a completely mirrored cube. A frenzy of images of flowing and swirling coloured atoms and sounds unfolds around them like in a cosmic opera. The installation’s technology captures people’s bodies in real time and models them into galactic explosions and compressions. The outlines of people’s bodies are imprinted on the particle clouds and cast the shadow of their presence into space.

What the animation Distortions in Spacetime can convey is a sense of wonder in the face of the bigger picture and the overarching structure of which we are a part. A sense of larger connections arises, as astronauts experience when they look at the Earth from space. They report a feeling of wholeness when they see the planet in all its beauty from afar, without political boundaries, and are captured by a deep understanding of the vulnerability of life on Earth.

Humans have always developed religious interpretations, myths and scientific theories to explain the origin of everything—including the universe itself before the Big Bang. The theoretical model of our time goes back to Einstein’s theory of relativity: in the beginning there was pure energy, there was no time, no space, everything was at the same time, at one point. Until the Big Bang created everything, the universe, the fundamental forces, the stars and ultimately the Earth and mankind. How can we understand this immensity? How can we comprehend what our sensory organs are not focussed on?

Our concept of reality depends on how our body is structured in order to perceive the world. Scientific research that explores the essence of nature reveals a wide range of realities that are often beyond our perception. Art does this too, but it brings it all back to us by enquiring into the meaning of knowledge and making it relatable in images.

The essence of what makes us human lies in the depths of space-time. The artists’ collective takes up the challenge of sensorially combining an examination of the nature of the universe with our own existence.

Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) is an artist collective based in London (UK) that creates immersive experiences by combining art, film, and Extended Reality, expanding human perception and exploring our connection to the natural world. MLF collaborates with interdisciplinary experts from art, programming, engineering, poetry, and chemistry to develop custom software and hardware systems. MLF has exhibited internationally at institutions such as the Barbican Centre, London (UK), ACMI, Melbourne (AU), Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media – YCAM (JP), Phi Centre, Montreal (CA), and the Istanbul Design Biennial (TR). The collective is known for award-winning works such as We Live in an Ocean of Air (2018) and In the Eyes of the Animal (2016), with the latter receiving the Wired Audi Innovation Award for Innovation in Experience Design. TreeHugger: Wawona was shown at the Frankfurter Kunstverein in 2021 and won the Tribeca Storyscapes Award for Innovation in Storytelling and the Best VR Film Prize at the VR Arles Festival (FR). MLF’s work has also been featured in leading publications such as The Guardian, New Scientist, Wired, The Times, and Creative Review.

Courtesy Lawrence Malstaf / Tallieu Art Office

Lawrence Malstaf is known for his interdisciplinary artworks, which move freely between visual art, installation, dance and theatre. His work deals with the human body and its possibilities of perception and explores physical and psychological boundaries. Breath is the starting point for the staging of Shrink 01995, which was originally created as a six-hour performative installation. Malstaf performed it himself. He later extended the work to include visitors, who were also able to experience this intense work.

Two large, transparent foils are stretched across a framed structure. The person presses their body into the space between them. Wrapped in this skin, he or she holds two tubes. One removes air, one supplies air. One creates a vacuum between the foils so that the body floats in a compressed state, while the other allows the body to breathe. For the duration of the performance, the person inside moves slowly and changes positions, and it is they themselves who regulate the air supply. There is no danger for the participants. However, they are faced with the challenge of having to overcome their own psychological expectation that the process might be difficult and dangerous. And they need to consciously change the way they control their own physicality. Breathing must find a new rhythm.

A breath is at the beginning and end of every life. We are constantly inhaling and exhaling into the world, that is the basic way of relating to it. The breath can stagnate or flow. The interplay between breathing and mental states is known in all ancient civilisations. Pranayama originated in India as a technique of breathing exercises for meditation and controlling thoughts.

The designed arrangement of the work shuts out sight and hearing and instead intensifies the perception of touch and pressure on the entire surface of the body. The senses are directed inwards, an increased concentration on the inside of the body sets in—the beating of the heart, the rushing of blood and the rhythm of breathing. A profound experience of space and physicality, isolation and limitation, as well as peace and protection opens up. The installation reflects the adaptability of the human mind and creates an intense reflection on the duality of fragility and resilience under extreme conditions.

Malstaf is looking for an experience that throws people back to the realm of the existential. He himself has lived for years in the seclusion of Norwegian nature. Silence, vastness and the forces of nature are fundamental experiences that he considers essential for a sense of the natural.

The participants in the experience assume new poses at regular intervals. In moments of immobility, they almost look like paintings or still lifes. Depending on how you look at them, the experience may appear terrifying or peaceful. The three-dimensional state of suspension can give rise to countless associations: from nature morte in the sense of bodies exhibited as goods or products, to the state before birth and weightlessness in the womb. Malstaf’s art is not intended to tell a story. He does not create pictorial metaphors. He creates spaces that make it possible to experience primal forces.

Over the summer, the Frankfurter Kunstverein launched an open call for people from very different areas and backgrounds to be part of Malstaf’s work. The artist prepared the participants for the experience in several sessions. They experience Shrink 01995 from a personal perspective, acting not only as observers of the artwork but also as co-creators, exploring the limits of their physical and sensory perception and bringing the artist’s work to life on an intense level.

Lawrence Malstaf (b. 1972, Bruges, BE) lives and works between Tromsø (NO) and Oudenaarde (BE). Malstaf’s art moves between visual art and theater. He is known for his sensory installations that explore space and orientation, engaging visitors as co-actors. Since graduating in industrial design from the Henry van de Velde Institute in Antwerp (BE) in 1995, he has worked both as an artist and as an innovative set designer in the international dance and theater scene. His performance Shrink alone has been shown over fifty times worldwide. Malstaf’s works have been exhibited in significant institutions such as the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Le Havre (FR), the IOMA Art Center, Beijing (CN), the CCBB – Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo (BR), the Centre Pompidou, Paris (FR), the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg (DE), the Trondheim Kunstmuseum (NO), Bozar, Brussels (BE), FACT, Liverpool (UK), Eyebeam Art + Technology Center, New York (US), and Z33, Hasselt (BE), as well as at numerous festivals. He has received several international awards in the fields of art and new technologies, including the Golden Nica at Ars Electronica in Linz (AT) and the Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival in Tokyo (JP).