The Mantis Shrimp Matrix is an immersive, multi-sensory art installation that explores perception, ancestry, and the search for meaning through the lens of one of natureʼs most extraordinary creatures. With its ability to see ultraviolet, infrared, and polarized light, the mantis shrimp perceives a world far beyond human vision. This project asks: What does it mean to truly see? How do we expand our perception—not just biologically, but creatively, ancestrally, and spiritually?
Every living being experiences the world through a sensory framework shaped by biology, instincts, and environment. Scientists call this an umwelt—a unique perceptual world that defines an organismʼs reality. The mantis shrimpʼs vision, radically different from our own, challenges us to imagine a spectrum of existence beyond human perception. While we may never see as it does, the very act of trying—of translating its perception into art—is an act of love. This process of reaching beyond ourselves, of stretching the limits of imagination, becomes its own practice and discipline.
By exploring our ancestral ties to the mantis shrimp, we begin to understand that perception is not just a physiological function—it is a cultural inheritance, shaped by generations of adaptation and survival. Art becomes a bridge between worlds, allowing us to see with imaginary, magical eyes and step into realities beyond our own.
This installation invites viewers into a surreal, high-art-meets-pop-culture landscape that blends humour, science, and deep philosophical inquiry. At its core, The Mantis Shrimp Matrix is a meditation on how we make sense of the world, how art allows us to access the unseen, and how ancestral knowledge can reconnect us to forces that exist beyond human awareness.
Experiencing the Matrix
Visitors will interact with custom-built devices designed to simulate the mantis shrimpʼs unique vision and translate it into sound. Since the mantis shrimp perceives light in a way fundamentally different from human sight, sound may offer a more accurate way to experience its multidimensional way of seeing—not as a static image, but as an unfolding, vibrating field of information.
The space also features a coral reef sculpture built from ocean plastic, serving as both an archive and an ecosystem. As an archive, it holds the remnants of what humans discard, a record of our impact on the ocean. As an ecosystem, it reflects
the ways in which life adapts and transforms even in artificial or hostile environments.
Finally, towering shrimp eyes—magnified and iridescent—transmit fragmented narratives from the ocean depths, evoking a presence both alien and deeply ancient. These elements work together to challenge our understanding of perception, inviting us to ask: What else are we not seeing?
Beyond Sight: Art, Empathy, and the Unknown
Through play, abstraction, and an unfiltered curiosity about the unseen, The Mantis Shrimp Matrix explores the intersections of science, art, and the unknown. Just as early humans painted on cave walls to make sense of their world, this project seeks to illuminate the mysteries beyond our sensory limits—not to offer answers, but to invite a deeper engagement with the act of seeing itself.
It is an invitation to step beyond the limits of our own umwelt, to imagine anotherʼs experience, and to find meaning in the collective imagination that makes art, and empathy, possible.
About the Artist
Lip Talk (Sarah K. Pedinotti) is an artist, musician, and storyteller whose work blurs the boundaries between sound, performance, and visual art. Known for her experimental approach and immersive creative worlds, her work is rooted in curiosity, play, and deep observation of the natural and surreal. The Mantis Shrimp Matrix is her first large-scale installation, expanding her ongoing exploration of perception, identity, and the unseen.
She has collaborated with artists including Laraaji, Hayley Williams (Paramore), The Secret Machines, and Kalbells, and continues to push the boundaries of artistic storytelling through sound, video, and interactive experiences.
