Whalefall, 2025

Anna Czoski & Sabin Timalsena

Whalefall examines the transformation of life after death. After a whale's last breath, the body descends to the ocean floor and serves as habitat for hundreds of species for decades.

Part of the body in Whalefall is the cellulose byproduct of a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, also known as Kombucha leather. The new life generated from this flesh is rendered as an emergent system where digital organisms emerge, grow, and interact with each other in a real-time simulation.

Whalefall premiered at the PNW Art + Tech Symposium, and was later shown at the UW Friday Harbor Labs for the Poetry Science Symposium.