Home | Podcast | Embracing unpredictability and physical process in immersive art with Georgie Friedman

Embracing unpredictability and physical process in immersive art with Georgie Friedman

In this podcast, discover how physical prototyping, water systems, and shifting sound and light bring Georgie Friedman’s installations to life.

In this interview, Georgie Friedman explores the creative process behind Dissolution, an immersive installation blending spatial sound, projection-mapped video and dripping water to evoke a dark, cave-like stillness. The work was installed at Gallery A2, part of Artisans Asylum, a collaborative makerspace in Boston.

Georgie is a Boston-based interdisciplinary media artist and educator. Her background in film, sculpture and digital media informs a practice rooted in physical experimentation, environmental phenomena and spatial design.

Listen to this podcast to learn about:

Why physical prototyping is essential for immersive media work
Creating installations that incorporate live water
How projection mapping changes when your surfaces sway, drip and shift

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Chapters

(00:00:00) Introduction to the Dissolution
(00:00:33) Podcast introduction and acknowledgements
(00:01:14) Interview with Georgie Friedman begins
(00:01:35) Exploring the installation Dissolution
(00:03:06) Concept and inspiration behind the piece
(00:05:46) Technical aspects and challenges
(00:09:42) Projection mapping and unexpected outcomes
(00:16:24) Reflections and future projects
(00:17:42) Advice for aspiring artists and conclusion

About Georgie Friedman

Georgie Friedman is a Boston-based interdisciplinary media artist whose immersive installations explore psychological and societal relationships to natural phenomena. Her work integrates large-scale video projection, sculptural forms, spatial sound and physical elements like water to create contemplative, sensory-rich environments. Drawing on site-based research and footage, she reflects on themes of climate, transformation and human fragility. Georgie holds an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, where she currently teaches. Her projects have been exhibited internationally and commissioned for public spaces

Takeaways from this interview with Georgie Friedman

In this episode, Georgie Friedman discusses the making of Dissolution, a sculptural video installation using projected light, sound and water systems to create a slow, cave-like atmosphere.

Working with unpredictable materials

“I intentionally made it like each cone has dripping at different rates, and now, you know, I chose that. But people started talking to me a lot about time, you know, like at first, like in the dark space, there was kind of no sense of time. You could get lost in there, but you would have these like different layers of time.”

Georgie describes learning to work with water not as a controlled element, but as an active, shifting part of the installation. Drips caused light to scatter, reflections to move and the sculptures to subtly shift. What began as a challenge became central to the work’s mood and meaning.

Composing spaces

“I always do, as I say, like, all physical lockdown first, like the sculptures where they're going to be, the projectors, all lockdown, so all physical stuff is done. And then I'll plug my computer into whichever projector for the pieces. Do the masking. Sometimes I'll use Med Map, or sometimes I'll actually just use After Effects, depending on what the project is, and then assemble my video tracks under that.”

Georgie’s approach blends projected video, physical materials and sound to create an environment that feels alive but subtle, more like weather than narrative. Her intention isn’t to tell a story, but to guide how people feel in space.

Creating a space for slowness

“I was definitely thinking about making, like, a slowing-down place, like where the hectic world and we could kind of go in and have a very kind of quiet and meditative space and that kind of slowing down of time, but not in these more complicated ways. People were talking about it, and I thought it was lovely.”

The installation is structured to change at a glacial pace. Drips fall irregularly, light pulses softly and sound is spacious and layered. This slowness encourages a bodily shift in the viewer, creating an inward, contemplative focus.

Projection mapping in motion

“But for me, the spill lines weren't my favorite, but it was a clear, like, technical choice that I made. But what was fun is that actually most viewers really liked them, and they kept having all these different associations that came up from it.”

Unlike many projection setups that rely on rigid precision, Dissolution embraced movement. Lightweight sculptural forms swayed as people passed through, and the projection moved with them. Instead of correcting for spill, Georgie integrated it, adding an ambient softness and a feeling of motion that aligned with the work’s themes.

Prototyping and testing

“After doing some tests like the miniatures, I'll make full-size tests to kind of see how the actual size and shape like feel like body and relationship to them. So I always do full-size tests before going forward too.”

To develop Dissolution, Georgie built a cardboard scale model of the gallery in her studio. She projected video onto scale models of the sculptures, then lifesize test sculptures, to see how video and movement interacted on the forms. For her, prototyping wasn't about miniatures or diagrams; it was about feeling how the space worked with the body.

Advice

“I would say, test, test, test. Like, you know, do some setups and see, like, you need to see and to kind of test it on yourself. See if you feel it. Like if you do something and if you feel nothing, nobody else is going to feel anything.”

Links from this podcast with Georgie Friedman

Posted 12-07-2025