Why it matters
Most of the AI conversation is about saving time.
Faster outputs, fewer people, more done with less. That framing skips the question artists actually care about: what is this stuff good for beyond efficiency? <please touch the art> started from a different premise: that AI can be a material for making things you can touch, play with, and gather around. Give artists a capable tool and two weeks, and the question stops being "how much faster?" and becomes "what kind of encounter can we build?"
How we did it
We ran it as a micro-residency: three artist teams, two weeks, and a shared pile of Claude credits to build with.
Geoffrey Lillemon, Ivano Salonia, and Mama Magnet (Tulika Ahuja and Reza Hasni) each took the same brief - make the museum something visitors could touch and play with - in wildly different directions, using Claude Code to wire sensors, sound, and multiplayer logic into working prototypes. We closed with a public showcase under Nxt Museum's larger-than-life screen: each team presented what they built and what they learned, then handed the room over to play. Visitors could try every prototype, or remix them into something new. Nxt Museum hosted and shaped the residency alongside us, and the Claude team backed it throughout.
What we made
Claude Cauldron - Geoffrey Lillemon
Geoffrey built an interactive cauldron that picks up every tap, knock, and stir as a live signal which can be mapped to anything, so a physical gesture becomes a way to control visuals, sound, spatial installations. A ritual object reimagined as an interface for other works - net art, 4D sound, even glitching LLMs - and an extension of his long-running practice on Oculart, where spectators become performers. We kept a digital twin you can play in the browser.
Distributed Synth Orchestra - Ivano Salonia
Ivano turned a room full of phones into one instrument. Inspired by 4D sound and his own practice as a musician, he built a multiplayer soundscape where each visitor's phone becomes a nodal point - the audience an orchestra, Ivano the conductor, the room a spatially responsive piece of ambient noise made in real time. The conductor is online to try yourself.
Consciousmess - Mama Magnet (Tulika Ahuja × Reza Hasni)
Mama Magnet made a geo-located social game that matches strangers in a room by their inner state - no profiles, no usernames - then sends matched players hunting for treasure hidden around the museum. As Tulika put it on the night: maybe the real treasure is the friends we make along the way. The game is live, and the build is open to remix.
The showcase - 04.06.2026
The work went public on a June evening at Nxt Museum, where around 200 people gathered under the big screen to meet it. Each team presented what they'd built and what they learned, then handed the room over to play: try every prototype, remix one, or go hunting for treasure across the galleries. The full night - build notes, and the photo set - lives on in our open project vault.
More projects.
(2019-25©)
