Watch the full Projections of a Coral City program above.

The sun has set on Projections of a Coral City, our largest installation to date, and we are thankful for everyone who made this monumental work possible. From the Knight Foundation’s continued support of our mission, to the collaborative spirit of the Arsht Center, to the hundreds of thousands of people who witnessed this installation: we are eternally grateful.

Projections of a Coral City was the 15-year culmination of our goal to create a new mythology for the city of Miami — one that tells the story of past, present, and future sea-level rise and fall and the ouroboros of architectural development — of the ancient coral reef tract’s calcium carbonate structures and its re-use millennia later in concrete skyscrapers of present day. We hope that Projections of a Coral City shed light on the sea-level rise projections referenced in the project’s title, and how the City’s buildings and infrastructure might be reclaimed by coral as an artificial reef should humanity not act to prevent and mitigate the effects of climate change, to which Miami is among the most vulnerable cities on Earth.

Special Thanks to the Knight Foundation, whose generous support made POACC possible; the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, who graciously hosted the event; the dream team of creatives that helped us bring POACC to life; and Light Harvest / A3 Visual for the absolutely stunning projection display.

Please see the Projections of a Coral City website for full info and production credits @ https://projectionsofacoralcity.com/

Read coverage of Projections of a Coral City from the Miami Herald.

We are ecstatic to announce Projections of a Coral City, a large-scale projection-mapping installation to be presented on the exterior of the Knight Concert Hall nightly, 6PM-12AM, during Miami Art Week from Tuesday, November 29 through Saturday, December 3, 2022. Projections of a Coral City, featuring macroscopic images of corals native to Miami and from around the world, is a monumental artwork and the largest projection of corals ever presented globally. Projections of a Coral City is made possible through the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Miami is a coral city. Built with marine limestone mined from the Everglades, its concrete skyline stands like corals colonizing the fossilized reef ridge on which the city was built. Miami and its maritime environment are inextricably connected geologically, historically, culturally and economically. Engaging residents and visitors with Miami’s coral reefs and waters connects them to the literal foundation of the city and to its future.

The corals featured in Projections of a Coral City were grown on flat tiles and 3D-printed scale models of the Knight Concert Hall over many years in our Miami laboratory, and subsequently photographed and enlarged to envelop the building’s southwest side. These aquacultured corals include the colorful, native Ricordea florida corallimorph. Corallimorphs are an understudied group of soft corals that scientists predict will proliferate in a world where oceans are acidified and stony corals can no longer calcify into reefs. Projections of a Coral City reimagines the Knight Concert Hall’s terraced form designed by architect César Pelli as an ever-morphing coral head and, as the sea-level rise projections referenced in the project’s title portend, suggests how the City’s buildings and infrastructure might be reclaimed by coral as an artificial reef should humanity not act to prevent and mitigate sea-level rise.

An ambient soundscape foreshadowing the City’s future by Coral Morphologic and Nick León will play in tandem with the projections on the Arsht Center’s Thomson Plaza for the Arts on Biscayne Boulevard.

For more information and production credits, please visit the Projections of a Coral City website @ https://projectionsofacoralcity.com/

We are infinitely excited to announce our first public art project: Artificial Reef, a nightly projection series showcasing local coral reef-life in massive scale on prominent buildings across Miami Beach from December second to the fifth. The concrete used in constructing these buildings is largely composed of the pulverized fossils of coral and marine life that once colonized South Florida when submerged in millennia past. The Artificial Reef projections will “encrust” and “colonize” the Wolfsonian Museum, the 407 Building, and the Art Deco Welcome Center facades like rocks of the reef. Artificial Reef has been made possible by a generous grant from the Knight Foundation.

During the week/end we will have an accompanying solo show of of our multi-media works at the Art Deco Welcome Center. Video loops, photography and projections will be shown. The opening reception for Artificial Reef will take place at the Art Deco Welcome Center on Friday, December 3rd from 8PM – 12AM. We are additionally psyched to host special live “soundscape” performances by ANR and Sumsun during the reception, with an accompanying collage of our Natural History films curated and affected by video artist Jamie Harley. The video collaboration will be projected onto the bands as they perform. We will have complimentary Prestige beer at the reception.