A.A.Murakami

Artist

A.A.Murakami · artblocks.io/artists/a.a.-murakami ↗

Based

Born 1983 (Alexander Groves, UK) and 1984 (Azusa Murakami, Japan). Lives and works in London and Tokyo.

Practice

Artist duo creating immersive sensory installations and generative artworks that emulate natural systems using ephemeral materials like fog, bubbles, and plasma, alongside digital shaders and algorithms to foster connections with nature and explore primordial origins.

Now

Following the 2025 Floating World solo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the duo continues international projects blending art, science, and technology.

Raster

raster.art/artist/aa-murakami ↗

In the set

Floating World Genesis ↗ · 250 editions

Links

Full bibliography ↗

A.A. Murakami, the artist duo established in 2011 by Alexander Groves and Azusa Murakami, has forged a distinctive path in contemporary art by integrating scientific inquiry with sensory experience. ⁴ Operating between London and Tokyo, the pair employs what they describe as ephemeral tech to produce installations and digital works that materialize transient natural processes. ¹ Their participation in the Art Blocks ecosystem through Floating World Genesis introduced 250 generative editions that translate these concerns into animated, collectible forms. ³

Ephemeral Tech: Materializing the Intangible

The duo's practice revolves around ephemeral tech, a term they coined to denote the use of technology to generate fleeting, atmospheric phenomena rather than fixed digital displays. ¹ This approach manifests in large-scale environments where fog, bubbles, mist, and plasma create immersive fields that engage viewers physically and perceptually. Early works like New Spring (2017) established their method of orchestrating interactive natural simulations through engineered systems. ¹

Exhibitions have amplified this vision on institutional stages. The 2025 Floating World presentation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston wove together five distinct yet interconnected installations, among them floating bubble clouds that dissolve into mist, radiating fog rings, and fields of flickering plasma tubes. ² Comparable projects at M+ Museum in Hong Kong further demonstrated their ability to construct otherworldly yet grounded sensory encounters. ¹² Public commissions, such as the Times Square Arts iteration of Floating World, extended these experiences into urban contexts where natural emulation intersects with everyday space. ¹¹ Their investigations into the limits of human perception have informed exhibitions such as the 2023 presentation at Hyundai Motor Studio in Busan. ⁷

Philosophically, A.A. Murakami connects their output to longstanding human traditions of emulating nature through art and architecture, from cave paintings to celestial observatories. ⁶ Recent profiles highlight ongoing interests in time perception, the block universe, and how technology can render invisible processes tangible and contemplative. ^{4 9}

Floating World Genesis and the Origins of Life

Released in December 2022 as the opening chapter of the Floating World project, Floating World Genesis comprises precisely 250 unique artworks generated on the Art Blocks platform. ^{3 10} Each token renders one of three distinct animated scenes featuring bubbles as central motifs, drawing direct inspiration from the Miller-Urey experiment of 1953 that probed the chemical origins of life in a simulated primordial atmosphere. ¹

Scene one depicts solitary or dividing bubbles symbolizing prebiotic matter. Scene two animates growing clusters suggestive of evolutionary transitions toward complex life. Scene three situates a central bubble within a dynamic seascape complete with procedurally generated waves and reflections, representing the stabilization of planetary biospheres. ¹ The underlying code employs vertex shaders driven by sine and cosine functions to simulate fluid motion across point-based meshes, augmented by Perlin noise for naturalistic water effects and sophisticated color mapping that explores harmonic and contrasting palettes. Select outputs incorporate stereoscopic rendering via anaglyph techniques, underscoring the artists' fascination with perceptual thresholds and hybrid realities they term the mataverse. ¹

The aesthetic sensibility leans toward hypnotic minimalism, evoking the contemplative stillness of Light and Space artists while harnessing generative variability to ensure each edition remains singular. ¹ The resulting pieces offer tranquil viewing experiences that reward prolonged observation, much like the durational encounters fostered by their installations. ⁵ In this way, the collection functions as both a digital archive of primordial imagination and a bridge to the duo's physical Floating World environments, where similar bubble and fog motifs achieve monumental scale. ² Critical coverage has situated the project as an exemplar of how generative art can model scientific and philosophical ideas about emergence and impermanence. ^{7 6}

By limiting the series to 250 editions, A.A. Murakami maintains an intimate scale that contrasts with the expansive physical installations, inviting collectors into a meditative digital counterpart to their sensory practice. The work thus embodies a cohesive vision across media, where code and matter alike serve to honor the delicate systems sustaining life on Earth. ³ Coverage in specialist outlets and institutional archives has affirmed the project's significance within discussions of web3 art and sensory practice. ^{9 8}

Live on Art Blocks: floating-world-genesis-by-aa-murakami ↗

Bibliography

The references cited in this essay are listed below. For the complete bibliography see the A.A.Murakami links page ↗.