Xingyu Huang





Sensing the More-than-Human: Emotional Landscapes of Symbiosis2024-Ongoing

“Sensing the more-than-human: emotional landscapes of symbiosis” is an interdisciplinary exploration of human/non-human relationships under climate change. Rising ocean temperatures impact ecosystem health, which includes unseen interactions with microbial communities. This project integrates artistic approaches with laboratory experiments, examining the relationship between anemones and their microbial symbionts as temperature increases.

By translating biological data across sensory modalities into sound, light, and motion, we aim to raise awareness of human impacts on ecological phenomena, and describe these impacts in the language of sensation and emotional experience. All collected data will be incorporated into an interactive website, freely accessible to the public, allowing a broader range of viewers to access these sensations.

Artist: Xingyu Huang
Scientist: Daniela Pierro (Ecology and Evolution Department, University of Chicago)

This project is funded by the University of Chicago, Office of the Provost, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is managed by the Arts, Science + Culture Initiative.


Xingyu Huang