Maelstrom (Videocittà 2026)

Maelstrom is an interactive, real-time generative work immersing viewers in a tempest of color and motion. Swirling waves crash into each other, giving rise to ephemeral forms and dynamic composition.

This extension of Maelstrom was created for Rome's Videocittà festival, which was curated around the theme of water for the 2026 edition.

Maelstrom is a generative interactive installation in which the audience activates and transforms a field of digital fluids on an LED wall in real time, using LiDAR sensors that detect body movement. The work constructs a dynamic ecology between the body, data, and image: each visitor becomes an agent of the simulation, leaving a trace in a system that never repeats itself.

Simple and yet enrapturing, water has long been at the center of Lake Heckaman's work. Every human is intimately (if subconsciously) familiar with the patterns arising from fluid dynamics, a consequence of the omnipresence of fluids in daily life. These everyday encounters are easy to pass by in the rush of a modern life, too often the excuse for failing to notice the beauty and complexity present in even the most mundane circumstances.

By extracting familiar fluid dynamics from the doldrums of daily experience and re-casting them on his moving canvas for Maelstrom, Heckaman draws attention to the stunning complexity and metaphorical depth of water.

Curated by Luca Martinelli through the framework of Rome New Media Week.

Videocittà website