Of the Oak at Kew Gardens: Marshmallow Laser Feast’s interactive digital installation exploring the Lucombe oak’s ecological significance

‘Of the Oak’ by Marshmallow Laser Feast is the first digital art installation to open at Kew Gardens, exploring the ecological significance of the Lucombe oak, a rare hybrid tree located within the Gardens, through an interactive and meditative experience.

Of the Oak by Marshmallow Laser Feast. Image credit Barney Steele.

Of the Oak by Marshmallow Laser Feast is now open at Kew Gardens, introducing the garden’s first digital art installation. Set among the grounds’ living collections, the work centres on the Lucombe oak—a tree with deep ecological value—and invites visitors into a sensory and reflective encounter with its inner life. The installation doesn’t aim to overwhelm but rather to encourage quiet engagement, using digital media as a tool for seeing the natural world differently.

The installation comprises a six-metre-high LED screen, positioned as a kind of digital threshold through which viewers encounter the oak tree’s seasonal transformations. Using LiDAR scans, drone footage, and environmental data modelling, the visuals chart subtle, invisible processes—carbon cycling, oxygen release, and mycelial connectivity—rendered in flowing, real-time animations. Visitors’ movements are tracked via motion sensors, allowing the visuals to subtly respond and shift as people engage with the work. This responsive quality reinforces the notion of shared space and mutual presence between human and tree.

Of the Oak by Marshmallow Laser Feast. Image credit Barney Steele.

An online guided meditation complements the installation, allowing visitors to engage with the work beyond the screen. Through breathwork that mirrors the oak’s biological rhythms, it encourages a slower, more embodied encounter with the tree’s unseen processes. Reflective prompts placed throughout Kew Gardens extend this experience across the site, encouraging moments of pause and contemplation in relation to the natural surroundings. Rather than delivering information directly, the installation creates space for a more reflective and relational experience—one that invites visitors to feel connected to the tree, rather than simply observe it.

Marshmallow Laser Feast are known for their use of digital tools to translate ecological systems into sensory experiences. In this project, they work closely with environmental scientists and ecologists to transform research data into a poetic visual language. Rather than overwhelming the space, the installation integrates with its botanical surroundings, using technology to accentuate the tree’s presence without drawing attention away from it.

Of the Oak by Marshmallow Laser Feast. Image credit Sandra Ciampone.

Of the Oak offers a new way of experiencing the gardens at Kew—one that moves beyond explanation or categorisation. Instead, it invites a slower, more intuitive encounter shaped by rhythm, light, and physical presence. The work gestures toward connection without seeking resolution, opening up a space to engage with the oak as part of a larger, living system.

Date: 3 May – 31 August 2025. Location: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, London TW9 3AB. Price: from £20 online (£23 at the gate); concessions and children’s rates available. Book now.