nom nom (2026) online prototype view 
commission by LAS Art Foundation in collaboration with Google Arts and Culture

nom nom


→LAS Art Foundation
→Google Arts and Culture
→Somerset House
→Oxford
→NeurIPS (Publication)




  • World Building
  • Distributed Interaction
  • Collective authorship and intelligence 

nom nom is an artificial world composed of millions of particles. Each particle perceives only its immediate neighbours and updates itself through a tiny neural network.In the work, no single particle possesses knowledge of the whole. Each changes its state based only on interactions with its immediate neighbours, triggering them to grow, collapse, compete or recover. From these local exchanges, landscape-like structures emerge. 

The project draws on Neural Cellular Automata (NCA), a class of systems inspired by how biological organisms grow from simple cells. Rather than programming specific creatures, landscapes, or behaviours, the artist defines local rules of interaction and allows complexity to emerge from them.

The result is neither a game nor a simulation of an existing ecosystem. It is an experiment in constructing a world whose inhabitants, weather systems, and landscapes arise from the collective behaviour of countless microscopic agents.

  • Audience Journey
  • Interactivity
  • Generative Landscape

Every visitor enters a world shaped by others.

Visitors encounter a continuously evolving artificial landscape. They can move through it, observe its inhabitants and alter conditions such as climate, terrain and creature populations.

These interventions do not produce an immediate or fully predictable output. Changes spread through the system over time, affecting relationships between entities and reshaping the wider environment.

Each visitor therefore enters a world carrying the consequences of previous participation. They experience both the possibilities and the limits of their own influence, before leaving a changed world for those who follow.

Participation becomes a form of collective authorship and stewardship.

Enter → 
explore → 
intervene → 
observe → 
leave new conditions behind

  • Development and output

Arts Council England support will enable nom nom to move from an online prototype into a robust physical installation for sustained public presentation.

The funded development will include:

  1. expanding the behaviours and visual language of the artificial ecosystem;
  2. refining the interface so that participation is intuitive and accessible;
  3. testing the work with non-specialist audiences;
  4. adapting the system for reliable use in different exhibition environments;
  5. developing a modular and reusable installation structure; and
  6. producing a woven textile generated from a moment within the evolving simulation.


The project will result in an exhibition-ready interactive artwork, public documentation and an open-access publication bringing together artistic reflection, audience learning and interdisciplinary perspectives.


Rendering for 3 Evenings setup

The work is viewable both on the stage (LED screen) and on the smaller TVs in the space. The TVs will play videos while the LED screen will show the live rendering of the work.
The audience will be able to interact with nom nom 
The station is in front of the LED allows the user to interact with nom nom via mouse\keyboard

Confirmed opportunities:

Somerset House - 3 Evenings (Oct 2026)
Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, Oxford - Planetary Health exhibition (April 2027)Targeted opportunities:

NeurIPS - World’s leading AI conference - Creative AI track  (Dec 2026)
ONX onassis, New York -  TECHNE exhibition (spring 2027)
  



Timelapse of nom nom’s simulation

Our Team
Xin Liu Studio — artistic direction and delivery
Google Arts & Culture and LAS Art Foundation — original prototype commissioners
Somerset House — curatorial, production and audience support
Oxford Cultural Programme — exhibition, research and public-programme context
Technical and fabrication collaborators — software, installation