CONFLUX, 2026

by Paul Cleland

What happens when a digital artwork behaves like a living system?

Created especially for City of Wonder Art + Design Week, Conflux transforms a vacant Centre Place shop into an immersive field of moving image and sound.

Using two-channel projection, self-generating digital systems and an expansive panoramic image, Paul Cleland creates fluid forms that shift and evolve in real time — surrounding the viewer and extending into the edges of your vision.

But Conflux is not simply something to watch.

A MIDI controller allows visitors to interact with the work, changing variables within the system and influencing how the animation unfolds.

Working with sound artist Mike Shephard, Cleland adds an absorbing sonic dimension to the installation, giving weight and atmosphere to the constantly changing imagery.

Inspired by the way natural ecosystems evolve — where small changes can create much larger outcomes — Conflux also invites us to think about something closer to home: how individual actions, connections and systems come together to shape our cities.

Light becomes movement. Sound becomes space. You become part of the system.