2026
product design
A sequence of studio accidents unfolded into a language of sound and light.
Before encountering the term pallasite, we were already working in its shadow. These rare
meteorites—composed of iron-nickel matrices embedded with translucent olivine crystals—
originate from the boundary between mantle and core in early differentiated planetesimals.
Formed through catastrophic collisions at the dawn of the Solar System, they are often called the
“beauty queens” of meteorites: luminous, stratified, and impossibly complex. At their center:
iron.
In the studio, an attempt to laser-cut transparent acrylic produced an unexpected residue.
Knowing the laser would pass through the material without sufficient absorption, we masked the
surface with black tape. The beam burned only the tape, leaving the acrylic intact yet marked by
a scorched, particulate trace. What appeared at first as waste revealed a subtle optical quality—a
surface that refracted and scattered light in irregular, compelling ways. The material was kept.
Cut into smaller fragments, it was initially intended for a utilitarian object—a plant cover. A
second accident intervened. While heating the acrylic to shape it, the material was overheated,
partially liquefying and re-solidifying into layered distortions. The result resembled an
extraterrestrial fragment: dense, irregular, mineral-like. A synthetic meteorite.
It was only then that pallasite entered the conversation, providing both a scientific and poetic
anchor. From this convergence emerged the proposal for an installation: to speculate on the
sensory trace of a cosmic encounter. A narrative formed—a meteorite traveling across deep time
and distance, drawn toward an unknown counterpart. The moment of impact, immeasurable in
force, would produce a collision of sound and light so vast it could not dissipate, only persist—
somewhere, held within the fabric of the universe.
Rather than reconstruct this event, the work defers its resolution to the audience. What is the
sound of such a collision? What is its light? The installation becomes a site of projection, where
perception completes the phenomenon.
Materially, the project returns to iron—the elemental core of pallasite. A cast iron speaker and a
ferrofluid system are embedded within the layered acrylic form. Sound becomes vibration
through metal; light becomes motion through magnetic fluid. Encased within the stratified
object, these elements echo both geological formation and cosmic violence.
What began as error accumulates into structure. What appeared as damage becomes surface. The
work situates itself between accident and intention, where matter, process, and imagination
converge—quietly reconstructing a fragment of the universe.
( credits )
Design — Gary Chen, Lidiia Velbovets
Engineering — Harsh Kuma