In the first of our new WXO Member Spotlight series, Camden, London artist and experience designer Skye Von reveals how she invites communities to step inside stories that change how we see.
This October, Camden, London-based artist and experience designer Skye Von unveiled her latest participatory installation, Embrace – a mixed-reality artwork exploring presence, empathy, and social healing through the power of human connection.
Von’s work blurs the line between art, storytelling, play and experiential design. Whether transforming a classroom into a living digestive system or building shared virtual worlds that respond to human interaction, she makes complex ideas tangible through participation.
“I’m interested in how creativity and being immersed in it can shift our awareness,” she explains. “When we take part – physically or imaginatively – something changes. We remember differently. We understand more deeply.”
Earlier this year, Von piloted You Are What You Eat at a Camden primary school in London, where children helped tell the story of a monster named Nutri while learning about healthy nutrition and digestion through storytelling, science experiments, and play. The experience will travel to other Camden schools later this year, expanding her mission to connect art, science, and wellbeing in ways that make learning felt rather than taught.
Her new work Embrace, shown at The Art Office (Primrose Hill, 18–19 October 2025) and presented by CapitArtX at the Harwich Arts & Heritage Centre (24 October 2025), extends that participatory language into gallery spaces. Participants wear AR headsets and move through a fading environment that gradually regains colour and life through one simple act – consensual hugs.
The piece invites audiences to consider how designed interactions – even the smallest ones – can transform how we relate to one another. As the virtual space brightens with each connection, participants experience emotional feedback not as spectacle, but as a co-created moment of renewal.
Originally developed in 2019 at the New Museum’s NEW INC (New York), Embrace was conceived as a poetic reflection on connection in an age of digital isolation — a theme that feels even more resonant today. The reimagined UK edition builds on that concept with untethered, multiplayer AR headsets and new artwork contributed by local schoolchildren on themes of kindness and belonging, grounding the work in real-world community while maintaining its emotional intensity.
A short video of the original version can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IujIp6o6B5Y.
Von’s next project brings her philosophy into the digital space through JoyGaze, a meditative art app that invites people to notice uplifting symbols in daily life. Using AI, these images become personalised artworks and reflections – turning small acts of noticing into creative rituals that encourage a shift toward joy and curiosity.
Across all her work runs a single thread: transformation through participation.
“The themes I work with are things I’ve had to work through myself,” Von says. “Whether it’s what we eat, how we connect, or how we balance modern life – turning them into creative experiences helps others explore those same questions in their own way.”
Her motivation is also personal.
“After having my son, I saw how early awareness forms and how powerful it is when children can explore ideas through imagination and story rather than instruction,” she reflects. “I wish I’d had creative experiences like these when I was young, so it feels natural that I now want to create them for my son.”
This understanding has become a guiding force in her practice, motivating her to design new work and reimagine earlier projects in ways that are relevant to children and, when appropriate, open to co-creation with them. Beyond participation, Von sees co-creation as a powerful route to deeper awareness, as it gives participants a sense of ownership and allows ideas to be not only experienced deeply but also become their own.
“My work is about giving people – especially children – spaces to explore ideas through imagination, play, and participation.”
Together, Embrace, You Are What You Eat, and JoyGaze exemplify Von’s belief that experience design can be both art and empathy – not something audiences simply view, but something they live, share, and shape together.
Skye will be sharing her learnings for members at ‘R.E.V.E.A.L. – Why Value-Engineering Is a Creative Superpower‘ – a WXO Campfire coming this December. Click here for details and to reserve your space.
