共生之茧 Original

Located on the lawn of the West Bund Oil Tank Art Center in Shanghai, Symbiotic Cocoon is a new media installation that explores the relationship between industry and nature.

The exterior of the work is formed by a transparent inflatable membrane, while the interior is filled with leaves made of electronically controlled dimming film. These leaves shift between transparency and opacity under light, as if electronic plants were breathing. Surrounding wash lights tint the leaves, giving the whole space a cybernetic rhythm of life at night.

The transparent inflatable is not only a “cocoon” in form but also functions as a protective layer, allowing media that usually depend on indoor environments to be presented outdoors. This both responds to the industrial genes of the Oil Tank site and demonstrates the infinite potential of inflatables as a combinatory medium.

Symbiotic Cocoon is thus both a metaphor for the symbiosis between nature and technology and a bridge between industrial heritage and future imagination.