Coral Morphologic Projections of a Coral City

Coral Morphologic: Projections of a Coral City

Coral Morphologic presents Projections of a Coral City on the exterior of the Knight Concert Hall nightly during Miami Art Week from Tuesday, November 29 through Saturday, December 3. The large-scale, projection-mapping installation, which features macroscopic images of corals native to Miami, is a monumental artwork and the largest projection of corals ever presented. Projections of a Coral City is made possible through the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Miami is a coral city. Built with limestone mined from the Everglades, its concrete skyline stands like corals colonizing the fossilized reef ridge on which the city was built. Miami and its maritime environment are inextricably connected geologically, historically, culturally and economically.

Engaging residents and visitors with Miami’s coral reefs and waters connects them to the literal foundation of the city and to its future.

The corals featured in Projections of a Coral City were grown in Coral Morphologic's laboratory in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood, and include the colorful, native Ricordea florida corallimorph. Coral were grown on 3D-printed scale models of the Knight Concert Hall, photographed and enlarged to envelop the building’s southwest side. 

The work reimagines the Knight Concert Hall’s terraced form as an ever-morphing coral head and, as the sea-level rise projections referenced in the project’s title portend, suggests how our city’s buildings and infrastructure might be reclaimed by coral should we not act to prevent and mitigate sea-level rise.

An ambient soundtrack by Coral Morphologic and Nick León will be played on the Arsht Center's Thomson Plaza for the Arts on Biscayne Boulevard.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Coral Morphologic will launch the non-profit Coral City Foundation, whose mission is to protect, document, research and raise awareness of the pioneering urban corals colonizing Miami's artificial coastlines. The Coral City Foundation builds off Coral Morphologic's successful citizen science and art project Coral City Camera, a live stream of the underwater world at the east end of PortMiami. 

About Coral Morphologic
Coral Morphologic is a scientific art endeavor founded by marine biologist Colin Foord and musician J.D. McKay in 2007 as a multifaceted platform for the development of symbiosis between humans and coral. With coral as their primary muse, Coral Morphologic presents these reef organisms as inspiring and archetypal life-forms via videography, multimedia and site-specific artworks.

Coral Morphologic finds itself firmly rooted in the present time and place of Miami, a city built primarily from limestone recycled from thousands of years of local reef-building and home to a diverse cultural community that mirrors its colorful aquatic ecosystems. It has concluded that there is an inseparable affinity between Miami and the reef, and seeks to illuminate this relationship through its work.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
As social investors, the Knight Foundation supports democracy by funding free expression and journalism, arts and culture in community, research in areas of media and democracy and in the success of American cities and towns where the Knight brothers once published newspapers. Learn more at kf.org and follow @knightfdn on social media.