Thursday 3rd April, (time tbc)

Lauren Moffatt is inviting participants of the XR Lab to contribute AI prompts and vocal sounds for the creation of 3D assets in this a world-building workshop.

Lauren Moffatt, artist in residence at DAS as part of the S+T+ARTS4WATER II programme, will present the work in progress on her new game-engine based simulation "Chorcorallium". 

Chorcorallium / Córcoral is a speculative immersive experience that takes the visitor on a journey to the ocean floor, a space of both ruin and rebirth. Within this virtual environment, participants encounter a junkyard teeming with remnants of human industry—car wrecks, construction scaffolds, and shipping containers—gradually transformed into a vibrant underwater ecosystem. Coral encrusts these remnants, growing alongside an intricate soundscape shaped by algorithmically generated harmonies. The scene culminates in the realization that these corals thrive on the foundations of offshore wind turbines, merging human innovation with marine regeneration.

During world-building workshops that form the foundation of the work's creation, participants are invited to contribute a prompt to generate a coral species as well as the note that will be sung by that species in the coral reef. These fictional corals and their accompanying sounds become part of the evolving reef, emphasizing collaboration and the potential for regrowth.

This work was commissioned within the framework of the S+T+ARTS 4Water II residency programme by ADAPT Centre at Dublin City University and Beta Festival with the support of Belfast Harbour, Maritime Mile, Belfast City Council, Digital Artists Studio (DAS) Belfast and the S+T+ARTS programme of the European Union.