A small gesture - part of the group project 'A gift for others' with CSVPA staff, students and alumni; exhibited at University College London Cancer Institute, May 2025.
With over a decade of experience in art-science collaborations, I have encountered a spectrum of controversial, complex, and mind-expanding subjects. Yet this collaboration with UCL’s Cancer Institute has been the most profoundly moving. In observing pioneering researchers at work and listening to Madlani Cancer Support patients’ stories of fear, resilience, and community, I was struck by the extraordinary generosity and courage that underpin every step of this work. Even when faced with something as devastating as cancer, what emerged was a powerful sense of connection, tenacity, and hope – and a reminder that each patient's experience, like each cancer itself, is deeply individual.
Visiting the laboratories, witnessing groundbreaking imaging techniques performed on the delicate tracery of cells sampled from living bodies, I was captivated by the beauty and fragility of this usually unseen world.
These samples, removed from their original embodied context, are transformed, grown and examined to offer vital insights - yet they also carry an emotional weight. I became interested in how to return these cells, symbolically, to the human body; inhabiting the imagery and systems of science to better understand them, and to offer a small sense of agency within the confusion and vulnerability that diagnosis brings.
A Small Gesture translates the ephemeral movement of the human body into swirling, evolving visual patterns. Using a webcam and a locally run machine-learning model (via an open-source Mediapipe plugin in TouchDesigner), the software tracks live data points on the body to transform visitors' movement into a living cellular texture, shaped by their gestures and amplified by the unpredictability of feedback and noise. A clap or loud sound transforms the colours, allowing even small, spontaneous acts to ripple through the visual field.
At its heart, A Small Gesture is a gift — for the scientists whose tireless work offers hope, and for the patients whose shared stories and strength inspire beyond measure. I hope it offers a moment of reflection, a sense of beauty amidst complexity, and a reminder that even the smallest act can create lasting ripples.
Credits: Cellular GLSL code based on ‘Cellular Dream’ by George Toledo and 2D Cellular noise ‘Worley Noise’ by Stefan Gustavson.
