Pearl Nose, 2026
Live data-driven digital sculpture
Unity · real-time weather data
Pearl Nose is a live data-driven digital sculpture developed in Unity and a continuation of DanTommi’s earlier work HippoCampus. The form originates from a seahorse first modelled by hand in clay, then digitised and transformed into a three-dimensional point cloud.
The work connects to an unusual event on the Swedish west coast. In 2023, six-year-old Hubert Berggren discovered a living seahorse in Bovallstrand, Bohuslän. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg confirmed it as the first documented discovery of a living seahorse in Sweden. After being documented, the seahorse was released back into the sea. Researchers believe it had probably drifted into Swedish waters with currents from the North Sea.
Pearl Nose receives live weather data from the SMHI weather station at Vinga on the Swedish west coast. Wind direction determines the orientation of the seahorse. Temperature changes the colour of its points, from blue in colder conditions towards red as temperatures rise. Wind strength affects the cohesion of its digital body: as the wind becomes stronger, the points disperse and the recognisable form begins to dissolve.
The work brings together recurring aspects of DanTommi’s practice: a form made by hand becomes data; environmental information becomes an active material; and sculpture shifts between physical and virtual space.
Presented as part of DIGITALISM at Saatchi Gallery, London, 2026, Pearl Nose imagines the seahorse drifting back across the North Sea — this time in digital form.
Pearl Nose, 2026
Live data-driven digital sculpture
Unity · point cloud · live SMHI weather data from Vinga, Sweden
DIGITALISM · Saatchi Gallery · London