Kuuki is an art and design studio established in 2006 by Priscilla Bracks and Gavin Sade that fuses traditional art forms with digital technologies. We make illuminated and interactive sculptures, installations, media-facades, and public artworks as a form of visual storytelling to explore the world in which we live.

We also translate this interdisciplinary practice into interpretive designs for environmental and cultural heritage projects, and museum public-programs. The quality of our interpretive content emerges from our experience creating bespoke, site-specific artworks, and our interest in science and the natural world. We collaborate enthusiastically with curators, project officers, scientists, park rangers and local communities who contribute a wealth of knowledge to each project, and inspire future creative works.

Art (and design) is the heart of what we do – but it is not all we do. Art and the stories we tell through interpretive design, help people understand themselves and the world around them. While its capacity to influence is limited, art and design play an important role as a safe space where people can explore new ideas, develop new appreciations, and engage with change. It reflects culture and sometimes effects culture, as these gradual process of understanding cede previous constraints. Therefore, we approach each project as one with the potential to build healthy, adaptable communities.

What’s in a Name?
Our name highlights the unique sense of energy, style and spirit we bring to our work. Kuuki is a Japanese word that means air or atmosphere, and is colloquially used to refer to “the things we take for granted, but can’t live with out.” This is how we often feel about art and creativity.

Kuuki is also used in Japanese phrases such as kuuki o yomu, (trans. read the air), which refers to the unspoken mood, feelings, or atmosphere of a situation, and understanding without explicit information. This phrase reminds us that there is more to our world than we immediately perceive. Our creative work is inspired by these boundaries of perception – both the ineffable and that which is yet to be understood and described by science.