Awen: Unbound, a Living Landscape for Outernet London

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In 2025, Media Cymru launched a Challenge Fund with Outernet London, funding two Welsh creative technology companies to develop new work for the venue. Outernet's real-time media screens draw more than six million visitors a year, and our immersive studio, ATXR, was one of the two companies selected. The brief was open, but the canvas was demanding. Outernet's main space surrounds visitors with four LED walls and a ceiling, each with its own dimensions. Anything we made had to work across all five surfaces as one world, hold the attention of a busy walk-in audience, and give people a reason to take part rather than just watch. We also wanted it to say something about where it came from: a studio in rural North Wales, making high-end immersive work a long way from the city.

Awen is a Welsh word for poetic inspiration: the moment where emotion, nature and imagination align. Awen: Unbound is built around that idea, taking visitors on a journey from containment to creative release. Visitors scan a QR code on the plaques in the space to join from their own phone. Each person appears on screen as a seed holding swirling particles, and a tap sets it free. The opening section runs in real time in Unity, with the particles taking their movement and colour from live Met Office weather data for Ynys Môn (Anglesey), so no two showings are quite the same. As they gather, they form root-like networks inspired by fungal mycelium. The networks then give way to a fully rendered 3D landscape of giant fungi, coral-like plants, stone arches and floating planets, rendered as five separate films so the world lines up across the walls and ceiling. The soundtrack started with PlantWave, a device that turns the electrical signals of living plants into sound, shaped with music collaborators into a full soundscape. We refined the piece through rounds of testing on the Outernet screens, from a remote first test in January 2026 to in-person sessions in London.

Awen: Unbound premiered on 4 March 2026 at Media Cymru's invite-only showcase during Wales Week London, and then ran on the Outernet screens. It brought live data, audience interaction and large-format 3D animation together in one experience, made in North Wales from Welsh data and Welsh plants. Event photography by Neil Thomson for Media Cymru.