Part of David Cronenberg’s retrospective exhibition at TIFF (October 2013), Body Mind Change is an immersive storytelling experience that takes the participants into imagined scenarios inspired by Cronenberg’s films.

Co-produced by TIFF and CFC Media Lab, Aesthetec was brought onto the project to consult on technology and deliver a one-of-a-kind exhibit that builds off the idea of Cronenberg’s world super-imposed onto our own. Working closely with creative director Lance Weiler, CFC, architectural partners Reich & Petch, and with 3D designers Derek Quenneville and 1188 Productions, Aesthetec Studio created a laboratory for the literary company BMC Labs.

BMC Labs uses data from visitors participation with the online game “Body, Mind, Change” to 3D-print a new bionic life form – the POD (personal on-demand). As these 3D Pods are printed in the lab, they are then suspended in a nutritious fluid (mineral oil) and stored on one of many racks of jars in the exhibit. Once installed on the rack, the PODs come to life. A white-LED heartbeat is visible inside the POD and a color-changing LED above augments the environment to stimulate the development of different emotional responses.

This giant futuristic installation was one of Aesthetec’s favourite projects of all-time and has won several awards including the Jim Blackaby Ingenuity Award as part of AAM’s MUSE awards for 2014.