GEMFIELDS PRESENTS VOID AT LONDON DESIGN WEEK

Designer Dan Tobin Smith and creative studio The Experience Machine, in partnership with Gemfields, present VOID; a multi-sensory spatial installation at Collins Music Hall, Islington, as part of London Design Festival 2019. Visitors will become part of an immersive experience, travelling through a series of large-scale projections that showcase the expanded space inside gemstones and map the blurring boundaries between nature and design.

A selection of Mozambican rubies and Zambian emeralds from Gemfields’ mines, which date back millions of years, are brought to life through photography of tiny microcosms magnified to become abstract, galaxy-like structures. Accompanied by other semi-precious gems created in rare geological processes, these unique mineral formations are discovered, suspended and frozen in time.

The installation considers the concept of containment and scale, employing spatial design to explore the natural borders formed within these unique mineral formations. By translating moving image into a contained physical form and scoring the experience with harmonised layers of the human voice – by female electronic drone choir NYX – visitors are invited to enter within the portrait of
a gemstone’s natural inclusion.