MESH

MESH: Multisensory Experience of Soil Health

Location of activities and scope

Fundação Serralves, Porto, Portugal

Portugal – Festival animation

 

Executive Summary

This project proposes an immersive artistic installation that makes visible and tangible the hidden life of soils. The installation will feature transparent soil columns, each representing different conditions (healthy and degraded soils), will invite the public to contemplate the multidimensionality of the soil system, its structure, biodiversity, filtration capacity, and resilience. The installation will engage multiple senses: sight, touch, smell, and sound. Designed as an inclusive encounter space, it will promote talks and workshops involving scientists and specialists, linking the installation to real-world challenges such as sustainable agriculture, water management, forest fires, and climate change. By comparing healthy soils with degraded soils affected by fires or unsustainable land use, the installation highlights both the fragility and resilience of soil ecosystems, encouraging a deeper public appreciation of soil as a vital and often overlooked natural resource.

Motivation Statement

This project grows from a fascination with the hidden life beneath our feet and a desire to bring that world closer to public awareness. Soil is one of the most complex and essential ecosystems on Earth, yet it remains largely invisible in everyday experience.

Our motivation is to explore how artistic approaches and sensory experiences can open new ways of understanding ecological systems. Rather than presenting soil only through scientific explanation, the project invites people to encounter it through curiosity, observation, and listening.

By revealing soil processes through visual, tactile, and auditory elements, the installation encourages visitors to slow down and pay attention to the ground beneath them. This shift in perspective can help transform soil from something taken for granted into something recognised as alive, dynamic, and worthy of care.

At a time when soil degradation is accelerating globally, fostering this awareness is not only educational but also cultural. The project seeks to cultivate a sense of connection, curiosity, and responsibility towards the environments that sustain life.

Sub-project objectives

The project has four main objectives:
1. Reveal soil complexity through artistic means: to make visible and tangible the functions of soil (filtration, biodiversity, resilience) by transforming scientific processes into sensory experiences.
2. Raise soil literacy and awareness: to increase public understanding of soil threats (erosion, fire, contamination, mismanagement) and solutions (resilience, stewardship, biodiversity).
3. Foster dialogue and community engagement: to create a participatory platform where scientists, farmers, foresters, artists, and citizens can share perspectives on soil stewardship.
4. Promote behavioral change through emotional connection: to encourage shifts in perception, inspiring visitors to value soils as living systems and act as guardians of soil health.

Challenges and how they will be addressed

One of the main challenges addressed by the project is the invisibility of soil processes. Because soil life occurs largely underground and beyond everyday perception, it is often undervalued in public discourse and decision-making.

The project tackles this challenge by translating scientific knowledge into tangible and multisensory experiences. Transparent soil columns, water infiltration demonstrations, and sound-based interpretations of soil processes allow visitors to observe and sense what usually remains hidden.

Another challenge is the gap between scientific knowledge and public engagement. By working collaboratively with scientists, farmers, and forestry experts, the project creates accessible narratives and participatory activities that connect soil processes to everyday issues such as food production, water cycles, wildfire impacts, and land management.

Expected outcomes

Tangible Outputs:
○ Immersive installation: transparent soil columns showing healthy and degraded soil.
○ Multisensory experience: sight, touch, smell, and sound of soil processes.
○ Public engagement: talks, guided visit, live demonstrations.
○ Legacy & outreach: audiovisual archive and website to extend impact.

Intangible Outcomes:
○ Increased curiosity, literacy and empathy towards soil, moving soil from “invisible” to “visible” in public perception.
○ Strengthened connections between communities and their landscapes, especially in fire-affected areas.
○ Expanded dialogue between art and science, bridging emotional and rational ways of understanding soils.
○ Lasting memory of a multisensory encounter, fostering a sense of care and responsibility for soil.

Meet the Project Team

Madalena Vidigal

Architect and Researcer.

Instagram. 

Madalena Vidigal

Joana Albuquerque

Visual Artist and Architect.

Instagram.

Luís Cunha

Scientist on Soil Ecology, Earthworms, Genomics.

Luís Cunha