Christina Cappelli

I'm a creative technologist and designer working at the intersection of art, science, and emerging technologies. I create immersive experiences—through interactive installations, generative design, and bioart—that invite audiences to engage with the unseen and reimagine how they perceive the world around them.

Technology
The Void
Liminal Lens
All in One

&

Creative
Exoplanets
Tessé

Production
Getty PST
Pareva

All in One

Year: 2023
Role: Direction and Technical Development
Medium: Interactive Installation (JavaScript, ML5 PoseNet, p5.js, webcam manipulation)
Exhibition: Presented as a proof of concept at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program Spring Show

Overview
All in One is an interactive installation that transforms microbial communication into a visual, embodied experience. Inspired by the invisible language of bacteria, the piece visualizes systems of collective behavior through glowing trails of light. As participants move, they generate a living, luminous field, inviting reflection on the interconnectedness of life across both microscopic and cosmic scales.

Challenge / Question
How can we translate the invisible language of microbial communication into a participatory, sensory experience that resonates with human behavior? And how might we encourage people to move in ways that are both familiar and strange, inviting them to embody a new, non-human way of being?

Creative Solution
Reimagining bacterial quorum sensing through motion, the interaction uses embodied interaction to simulate a microbial ecosystem. Participants act as individual “bacteria,” and their movements release glowing “autoinducers”—digital signals rendered as light. When enough people move in harmony, a critical threshold is reached, resulting in a burst of collective bioluminescence. Inspired by the symbiosis between Vibrio fischeri and the bobtail squid, the piece connects biological intelligence with a cosmic visual metaphor, evoking microbial stargazing.

Technical Execution
Built with JavaScript, p5.js, and ML5 PoseNet, the installation tracks users via webcam, mapping each participant’s nose position to simulate microbial motion. Each tracked point generates glowing particle trails, and once a quorum is reached (i.e., multiple participants move in sync), the visual intensity spikes, mirroring biological communication through collective action.

Testing methods of movement /interaction

Audience Experience
Visitors enter a projected space where the movements of their nose in space leave glowing trails in real time. As more participants gather and move in unison, the environment responds with bursts of light, transforming personal gestures into a shared phenomenon. The experience blurs the line between biology and cosmology—what seems individual becomes collective, and what’s invisible becomes visual.

Impact
All in One makes abstract scientific concepts, like quorum sensing, tangible and emotionally resonant. It fosters awareness of how collective behavior drives change, inviting viewers to consider the hidden systems that govern both microbial life and human society. By engaging audiences through movement and light, the work promotes curiosity, empathy, and reflection on scale, perception, and connection.

TV Credits