/Land Between Lakes is a collaborative XR experience by myself and artist James Wylie. The work constructs a patchwork landscape formed through shared fieldwork, during which we collected photogrammetry scans of surrounding woodland. These point-cloud scans are collaged into an uncanny, slightly off-kilter environment, alive with movement, waving and shifting as if breathing on its own. 

The landscape is vividly alive until the viewer approaches, motion becomes stillness. This stillness is shaped by breath: a soft, pulsing circle synchronised to an audible inhale and exhale. Viewers are invited to breathe alongside it. Through this exchange, breath becomes an interface for change, slowing the environment and opening a space for pause, attention and reprieve. 

The title Land Between Lakes imagines a space suspended between two islands of thought: one rooted in technical language and systems, the other in embodied, sensory exploration of the natural environment. The work exists in this in-between state where digital tools become a means of reconnecting with the land. 

Built in TouchDesigner, the work exists as a live system that directly responds to viewer movement and interaction. Learning and developing TouchDesigner programs together became part of our exciting approach to collaboration, shaping both the process and its final form.