A Coral's Bloom

2025

Horniman Museum

In collaboration with the Horninman Museum and Gardens we designed a virtual reality experience that immerses participants in the birth of a coral (Acropora millepora) through the eyes of the coral itself. You are born from a coral polyp and drift into the ocean under the moonlight during a mass spawning event. This project seeks to explore how empathy and connection be used as tool to educate about the complex and alien ecological systems that shape our world. The virtual reality experience was exhibited at the Horniman Museum, inspired by their ground-breaking multi-year research on coral reproduction.

Full in VR demo of the final experience

Horniman late attendees experience the VR

Development Images

In game view of coral sperm and egg bundle

Presentation of the project at Fostering Care Symposium held in June 2025 in collaboration with Horniman Museum

Designing for Care and Accessibility

The initial brief for this project was to educate with love and care in mind. We used post-anthropocentric theories to ground our explorations of how we could create an experience that would explain the complex and alien systems of coral reproduction by finding connection to our own. The experience uses real audio recorded on Coral reefs.

However, VR can be a very inaccessible technology, especially in a museum context. For this reason we designed a VR experience that worked without the use of controllers and used head tilting and sound queues as the main methods of interaction.

In addition to being involved in the initial design process, I was was responsible for the technical implementations of the experience. This includes movement and interaction coding, visual effects and shaders and simulations, as well as incorporating animations and smooth audio.

Final Experience features birthing canal

Reflection

This was an extremely interesting exploration of the potential of VR as a tool to foster care and empathy while remaining accessible to a wide range of audiences. Moving forward, I would want to experiment with more sophisticated interaction systems and a more involved storyline to be more explicit with the educational content.