Marshmallow Laser Feast is no stranger to scale, nor to sensation. The acclaimed experiential collective, known for fusing art and technology into deeply immersive encounters, has built a reputation for revealing what lies beneath the surface of the visible world. Their works have transported audiences inside the bloodstream, through the lungs of a rainforest, and across the threshold of life and death itself. For Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, it has turned its visionary lens toward the universe and, moreover, our place within it.
Opening at the National Science and Media Museum this spring, YOU:MATTER is one of the headline commissions for Bradford’s landmark cultural year. Running until February 2026, this multisensory installation is a journey through time, space and self. It’s an exploration of the building blocks that connect every living being to the fabric of the cosmos. The show invites visitors to “come and see what you’re made of,” by quite literally making the invisible, visible.
As part of Bradford’s role as the UK City of Culture, YOU:MATTER is not just an art installation – it is a bold statement of intent. The programme for 2025 is already establishing itself as one of the most ambitious in the award’s history. With a rich heritage as the world’s first UNESCO City of Film and a population where more than 25% of residents are under the age of 20, Bradford is uniquely positioned to pioneer a new kind of cultural placemaking: one rooted in youth, diversity and innovation.
“We’re pleased to be collaborating with the National Science and Media Museum and Marshmallow Laser Feast on this exciting and thought-provoking installation that invites audiences to discover the profound connections between the universe and everyday life,” says Shanaz Gulzar, Creative Director at Bradford 2025. “Through immersive technology and Marshmallow Laser Feast’s innovative thinking, YOU:MATTER is the story of Bradford’s people and their place in the cosmos.”
This deeply sensorial experience unfolds through sound, video, data and interactivity. Visitors shift perspectives constantly – from watching the Earth breathe via real NASA satellite data, to following the microscopic journey of a single drop of water. Immersive projections show how everything in our bodies, from carbon to calcium, originated in the stars. Interactive moments include a responsive digital forest and a playful biodiversity-themed selfie station, placing visitors within a living web of planetary life. What emerges is a poetic, scientific and utterly awe-inspiring portrait of interconnection. As Robin McNicholas, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Marshmallow Laser Feast, explains: “YOU:MATTER is an invitation to see yourself as part of something vast- woven from the same cosmic fabric as the stars, the trees and the air we breathe. This experience reveals the hidden choreography of life’s building blocks, from the atomic scale to the planetary.”
That sense of choreography is at the heart of MLF’s approach. Drawing from science and storytelling in equal measure, they use cutting-edge technology to explore the choreography of atoms, the rhythms of life, and the ways we are all entangled with the world around us. Their work has been exhibited globally – from Sundance to Seoul, Lisbon to London – yet each project feels personal, immersive and rooted in a very human sense of wonder.
“YOU:MATTER inspires visitors to explore how everything in our universe can be traced back to the same cosmic explosion,” reads the exhibition’s introduction. “This experience shows the Big Bang wasn’t just a one-time thing – it’s still banging, right at the heart of Bradford and coursing through us and our surroundings.”
The museum itself, recently reopened following a once-in-a-generation £6 million transformation, is the perfect setting for this expansive installation. Its mission – to explore how media and technology shape our understanding of the world – resonates deeply with the themes of YOU:MATTER.
“We are super excited to be launching YOU:MATTER, created especially for Bradford 2025,” says Jo Quinton-Tulloch, Director at the National Science and Media Museum. “This amazing digital experience takes visitors on an unforgettable journey to explore their connection to the cosmos. We hope it sparks curiosity and leaves people with a renewed sense of wonder about their place in the universe long after they leave.” Marshmallow Laser Feast describe themselves as a “glittery slug trail through the cosmos,” working across disciplines – from coders and poets to chemists and choreographers – to explore how technology can deepen our relationship with the natural world. Their projects consistently zoom in on the unseen, revealing the forces that shape life on Earth and our role within its ongoing story.
As Bradford’s year in the cultural spotlight continues, YOU:MATTER stands as a radiant centrepiece – a reminder of the power of art to transform how we see ourselves and each other. It is storytelling at its most elemental, drawing lines between the stardust in our bones and the galaxies overhead, the water we drink and the planet we share.
Bradford’s City of Culture year is more than a celebration – it’s a blueprint. It’s showing what placemaking can be when it’s built from the inside out, with creativity, community and young voices at its heart. In that context, YOU:MATTER feels less like a single exhibition, and more like a cosmic echo rippling out across time, space and the north of England. As McNicholas puts it: “We want visitors to feel their connection to the past, present and future – not just as individuals, but as part of an ongoing story that stretches across time and space. YOU:MATTER is a reminder that you are not separate from the cosmos, but an extension of its story.”
In Bradford this year, culture isn’t just happening – it’s evolving YOU:MATTER is one the most significant shows in the UK this year. If you’ve not been, get your ticket and head to Bradford now.
YOU:MATTER is at The National Science and Media Museum, Bradford, until 22 February 2026.
Words: Anna Müller
Image Credits: Marshmallow Laser Feast, YOU:MATTER, Bradford, 2025. Installation photos by James Medcraft.
