Correlation Waves is a physical interactive installation composed of a kinetic sculpture suspended from the ceiling. The sculpture reacts to the position of the audience by inflating itself and deploying an isolation chamber around the person standing right under it. Users who interact with the piece will be trapped for a brief period of time where they will experience an audiovisual narrative journey distorted by the very nature of the isolation.

The installation draws correlative lines between climate change, the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, and its long-term health consequences in society. The isolation chamber invites its guests to self-reflect and to raise awareness about climate problems by comparing it to a crisis from which we are already experiencing its consequences.

In the last two years, physical isolation has also become a universally shared experience as we have sheltered ourselves and others from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. International scientific institutions in the UK, Germany, and the US have linked climate change to pandemics such as COVID-19, emphasizing the connection between bat species present in a region and the number of coronaviruses in a particular environment.

Similarly to the climate crisis, a pandemic such as Covid-19 was predicted by scientists many years beforehand. The isolation chamber invites its guests to self-reflection, by comparing the climate crisis to a crisis whose consequences we have already experienced.

Central to the piece is Nuño’s comprehensive approach to sustainability within his art practice. The construction of the installation has been carried out using only plastic waste materials, such as bags and food packaging wrapping films. The installation has been built by melting the plastics together, omitting the use of adhesive tape or glue. The technological elements that make this installation interactive are composed of modular reusable hardware that has been repurposed. The travel of the artist from Berlin to Lahti, necessary for the installation of the work, was carried out through the most sustainable options of boat and train.

The installation premiered at the Climate Utopias festival as part of the Lahti European Green Capital 2021 program.