Art experiences designed to tune the human body
BASIC INSTINCT creates art that brings you back to your senses.
Immersive worlds of sound, light and touch.
Informed by nature, neuroscience and somatics.
Less overwhelm,
More room to feel.
We need more places to feel present, alive and connected
The first work
An enveloping sound-and-light experience that moves with circadian effect across time.
You enter an intimate, womb-like chamber. Natural field recordings unfold around and above you.
As the light softens, the soundscape settles into night. Small details come forward. Moments of mist, rain, moving air and warmth. You can settle into one place or explore.
Then light begins to return. A dawn chorus gathers, opening the experience back onto the world.
The aim: to leave feeling more present in your body and more awake to the world around you.
Proposed format: one shared room. The prototype will establish duration, capacity and the final sensory elements.
Sensory references
Why art
A field of light.
Sound with depth and distance.
Air made tangible.
Art gives us a reason to enter, stay and explore. It can make an ordinary sensation unfamiliar enough to notice again. BASIC INSTINCT works through that curiosity, composing an experience people can discover for themselves.
The intention is in the design
The freedom is in how you experience it
Why nature
Depth and distance. Rhythm without exact repetition. The changing light between dusk + dawn.
A laboratory study found faster recovery on a physiological stress measure with natural sound than with loud environmental noise. Alvarsson, 2010
Nature exposure is linked to changes in brain activity related to stress, attention, and restoration. Baquedano et al., 2026
In a virtual-office experiment, participants recovered better from induced stress in environments with biophilic features. Yin et al., 2020
Research into natural sound, nature exposure and biophilic space informs how we approach the work. See the research ↓
Our approach
Architecture shapes how we move and where we settle. Research into perception informs the sound and light. Somatic practice keeps us attentive to how the experience is felt in the body. Together, they create a narrative arc that carries the visitor through one cohesive journey.
Deep intention shapes every detail, so the experience feels effortless and personal.
No technique to master. No right way to feel. Less work, more play.
The first prototype
We begin with mastering sound; space and visual field develop around it. The prototype gives us a room to compose, test and refine the experience.
Agree on the creative brief, recording rights, test space, technical options and responsibilities. Establish an itemized budget.
Build a complete dusk–night–dawn sound sequence. Compare versions with and without an urban opening. Explore listening positions, enclosure and occupancy. Establish the footprint and capacity that preserve efficacy and intimacy.
Introduce a working light treatment and selected tactile materials. Refine the experience through ~2 rounds of invited sessions.
Document the findings and recommend a public version, with a budget, schedule, host requirements and an assessment of what can travel.
The result: a working prototype and a costed plan for its first public presentation.
What we need to learn
Proposed first audience: small groups of LA/NY adults interested in art and sensory experience, recruited beyond the immediate team’s network and with varied sensory preferences.
Each round helps us shape the experience and the plan for presenting it publicly.
The team
Award-winning producer and executive producer with nearly 20 years across commercial, documentary and live work. Previously ran an integrative healing collective, bringing experience in both creative production and convening practitioners around human well-being.
US Head of Design and Creative Fellow at Deloitte Digital. A filmmaker and brand builder whose practice spans global campaigns, immersive experiences and independent film.
Head of Creative Spatial Experiences at WHY Architecture, with experience translating cultural narratives into exhibitions and immersive environments.
ASU professor, composer and acoustic ecologist whose work connects environmental listening with immersive sound. Artist and researcher residencies at IRCAM and ZKM.
Psychiatrist, neuroscientist and Apollo Neuroscience co-founder. Author of A Simple Guide to Being Alive, bringing clinical experience and two decades of research into chronic stress.
Emmy Award-winning acoustic ecologist with more than 40 years recording the natural world. His work brings exceptional depth in field recording and the preservation of natural quiet.
Advisor for Biophilic Projects at Penn’s Center for Neuroaesthetics. Entrepreneur and Beauty Bar founder, connecting nature, the built environment and everyday experience.
Spatial audio studio working at the intersection of sound, technology, and immersive experience; designing and building multichannel sound environments, combining spatial composition, engineering, systems architecture, room tuning, interactive programming, and production.
The development fund
To compose, build and test the first prototype. The fund supports creative and technical development, recording rights, test-space access, light and material studies, and screening/test sessions.
Development will deliver
This phase establishes what the public installation needs—and what it will cost.
Final scope, budget and schedule will be confirmed through technical scoping and test-space access.
Proposed planning allocation
Total working budget
$80,000
Illustrative allocation for scoping. These are planning allowances, not actual quotes. The model assumes access to an existing spatial-audio room rather than construction of a dedicated venue.
Proposed scheduleApproximately 12 weeks after funding and test-space confirmation
Scoping will confirm the schedule, staffing and dependencies. Partial funding would support a separately agreed first stage.
Working budget
| Service | Cost |
|---|---|
| Creative + technical scoping | $7,500 |
| Creative production and project management | $10,000 |
| Sound composition; spatial-audio development | $15,000 |
| Recordings and rights | $4,000 |
| Light and tactile-material studies | $8,000 |
| Research and scientific consultation | $6,000 |
| Branding, visual identity and comms | $5,000 |
| Test space, equipment and crew | $8,000 |
| Invited sessions, documentation and insurance | $6,000 |
| Administration and est. fiscal-sponsor fees | $5,000 |
| Contingency (7%) | $5,500 |
| Total | $80,000 |
The public work & beyond
Development will establish
Mist, water and more complex fabrication remain options to assess against their artistic contribution and production demands.
Public runs, cultural partnerships and work commissioned for particular spaces.
Pop-ups or pods developed around the elements that prove essential.
Creative direction and sensory design for partners, with a defined scope.
Additional sensory works, digital formats or a dedicated venue.
The research
Get involved
We’re inviting founding supporters and collaborators to help shape INSTINCT/SOUND
The next step is a working prototype. We are seeking:
to help bring it into physical form. Founding supporters will experience the work as it develops and see how their contribution shapes its first public presentation.
Help create a place to feel present, alive and connected