Digital Umbra

Created specifically for SXSW London 2026, Digital Umbra invites audiences to inhabit a distorted interpretation of Spitalfields Market, where shadows become active components of the surrounding environment. As visitors move through the installation, their presence is captured and translated into persistent digital imprints that remain beyond the moment of interaction. These accumulated traces form a continually shifting spatial composition, revealing how individual actions contribute to a larger collective experience and blurring the boundaries between memory, place and perception.

Using depth cameras, shadow mapping and real-time interaction, the installation captures bodies, garments and gestures as living streams of spatial data. Movement is translated into shifting point clouds and digital traces visualised in Unreal Engine 5, creating an environment that continuously evolves through participation. By treating shadow not as absence but as material, the project explores how light, motion and human presence can be transformed into immersive architectural experiences that exist between the physical and virtual world.