Disclosure: designboom presents its POSTHUMAN UTOPIAS chapter in partnership with INDX|GLOBAL, a global cultural platform focused on Indian architecture, design and creative intelligence.
Inside a gallery, a group of breathing inflatable sculptures swells and sinks. Their bodies stretch and deflate in slow cycles, and the rhythm comes from two places at once: the tides and the people standing among them. That is the premise of Pneuma (2025), a work by Dutch artist Marlot Meyer.
designboom places the installation in an Amsterdam gallery. Mister Motley reports that the work will appear at Art Rotterdam, held at Ahoy from 27 to 29 March 2026, in the Prospects section supported by the Mondriaan Fonds.
Breath as a second input
Visitors wear smaller inflatable forms fitted with sensors that register their breathing. According to designboom, those signals are translated into movement in the larger sculptures. In this interactive installation, the result is an exchange between human breath and the motion of the sea.
The breathing inflatable sculptures respond to two inputs, the tide and the people nearby. Both shape how the forms move, so the installation links a coastal rhythm to the body of each visitor.
Like Pneuma, this sculpture turns an invisible natural force into something visitors can physically sense, as wind is made visible through illuminated glass. DRIFT’s Aeolus sculpture bringing wind to life shows how light and movement can carry an environmental force into a London space.
Mister Motley describes the same logic in a different work by Meyer, Hotspot, where an algorithm turned sensor data from brain activity, eye movement and heartbeat into electrical stimulation felt by a group. In Pneuma, the link is simpler and more physical: breath.
Learning to feel the tide
Before making Pneuma, the artist spent three months in Friesland, in the northern Netherlands, during a residency at Het Lage Noorden. She placed wetness sensors in the mudflats near the Wadden Sea. The sensors sent environmental data by radio signal to wearable devices. Meyer called this research Project Tidal.
The aim was sensory, not analytical. She wanted people to register the movement of water without seeing it. Early tests used small vibrating motors against the skin, with changes in the water shown as different vibrations.
Meyer later moved to inflatable wearables, which she considered a more natural way to convey the sea’s slow change. As water rose, an air-filled device pressed against her abdomen. The pressure eased as the tide went out. She hoped the body would gradually become familiar with the sensation, and that awareness would extend into the landscape around it.
The research did not go smoothly. Sensors dropped their connection, batteries failed, and shifting conditions made consistent data hard to gather. One especially strong spring tide submerged her equipment, flooded the electronics and erased weeks of recordings. Meyer described the episode as a return to the sea’s constant movement and its resistance to control.
Diatoms at body scale
The forms of Pneuma draw on diatoms, microscopic algae that Meyer found in the muddy sediment of the Wadden Sea. According to designboom, these organisms move deeper into the mud as water rises and return toward the surface when they can catch sunlight. Some species keep their internal tidal rhythms even when removed from their natural setting.
Diatoms matter to marine food webs because they carry out photosynthesis. Their cell walls are made of silica, and under a microscope they have elaborate shapes. Meyer turns these forms into bulbous breathing inflatable sculptures with rounded protrusions and bright surfaces. At body scale, organisms most people never see fill the room.
Meyer’s diatom-inspired forms draw on microscopic life, and science has inspired other sculptors too. Ruben Moutinho’s sculptures made from scientific discards offer another look at how laboratory material becomes art.
The title comes from the ancient Greek word pneuma, which means both breath and spirit. In the installation, breath becomes a way to take part in a rhythm that runs far beyond the gallery walls.
What breathing inflatable sculptures ask of visitors
Meyer’s research journal, quoted by designboom, returns to one tension: “How to find the balance between information and meaning?” That question shaped Pneuma as the project moved from collecting tidal data toward letting people experience it.
Environmental monitoring usually produces numbers and graphs. Breathing inflatable sculptures route that information through the body instead. The work asks whether physical sensation can create a closer connection to forces that normally sit outside human perception.
Visitors leave with a plain question. If people could learn to feel the sea’s movement, would they understand their place in the environment differently? Meyer’s website lists @marlotmeyer as her contact handle, and the breathing inflatable sculptures themselves offer a direct way to test that idea.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Pneuma by Marlot Meyer?
Pneuma (2025) is an installation by Dutch artist Marlot Meyer made of breathing inflatable sculptures that swell and sink. Their movement comes from two inputs: the tides and the people standing among them.
How do visitors’ breathing affect the sculptures in Pneuma?
Visitors wear smaller inflatable forms fitted with sensors that register their breathing. Those signals are translated into movement in the larger sculptures, creating an exchange between human breath and the motion of the sea.
Where and when will Pneuma be shown at Art Rotterdam?
According to Mister Motley, Pneuma will appear at Art Rotterdam, held at Ahoy from 27 to 29 March 2026, in the Prospects section supported by the Mondriaan Fonds.
What inspired the forms of Pneuma’s inflatable sculptures?
The forms draw on diatoms, microscopic algae that Meyer found in the muddy sediment of the Wadden Sea. Meyer turns these microscopic shapes into bulbous inflatable sculptures with rounded protrusions and bright surfaces.
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