IAAC is proud to present ‘Nacre’: the Pulpo Collective’s installation for the Vivid Sydney Festival. Nacre takes inspiration from the many shell middens found during excavations of Sydney’s Barangaroo precinct.

The design of this lustrous work incorporates the geometry of sea shells, and it uses technology to translate environmental data to illuminate a hidden, underwater world. In creating Nacre the artists wished to honour Aboriginal people and highlight the role that sustainable principles, such as those practised by traditional users of the natural world can play in protecting fragile marine environments. The Pulpo Collective brings together some of the IAAC Alumni from the past Academic Years: Noor El-Gewely, Jonathan Irawan, Nikolaos Argyros, Lalin Keyvan, Firas Safieddine and Mehmet Bostanci.

Vivid Sydney is a 23-day festival of light, music and ideas that will run from 25 May to 16 June 2018. Vivid Sydney features many of the world’s most important creative industry forums, a mesmerising free public exhibition of outdoor lighting sculptures and installations and a cutting-edge contemporary music programme.