Psychosphere 2025: Jakob Kudsk Steensen Explores Life Origins
Jakob Kudsk Steensen presents Psychosphere at Cisternerne, Denmark in 2025, questioning human-centric views and deep-sea exploitation.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- Psychosphere exhibition was showcased at Cisternerne in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2025
- Artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen spent five years capturing deep-sea footage with research teams
- The installation examines life origins from non-organic matter, challenging human-centric perspectives
A striking new immersive installation by artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen, titled Psychosphere, brings together five years of extensive underwater documentation to challenge human-centered perspectives on nature and ocean resource exploitation.
Exhibited at Cisternerne—part of The Frederiksberg Museums located beneath Copenhagen, Denmark—in 2025, the installation merges deep-sea footage captured by Steensen himself and collaborating research groups. The project unites sculptors, scientific researchers, and composers to bring mystical underwater environments to life.
The exhibition elements visualize the earliest forms of life, tracing back to when volcanic gases spewed from ocean rocks under extreme heat and pressure to form the genetic foundation of DNA. Steensen collaborated with writer and theorist Melanie Challenger, incorporating her concept of 'psychospheres'—the idea that consciousness separates living entities from inanimate matter.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
"Viewing the world not as a biosphere of genetic resources but as a psychosphere of diverse agents alters our perspective and thereby our values and priorities."
Melanie Challenger
The venue itself, Cisternerne, is a damp, cold former underground water reservoir in Copenhagen. Walking through its concrete archways and pools of condensed water places visitors directly inside a wet world that mirrors the glowing screens of Steensen's video installations.
Utilizing the subterranean reservoir of Cisternerne as an exhibition space provides a powerful psychological backdrop. The damp, dark, and cavernous environment physically mirrors the deep-sea conditions depicted in the videos, bridging the gap between raw natural architecture and contemporary digital art to emphasize deep-ocean conservation.
The exhibition features three distinct series of sculptural works: Abiogenesis as the central freestanding piece, Orogeny consisting of interactive glass sculptures inspired by ancient desert water bodies, and Amorphous, crafted from resin and fiberglass referencing extinct sea lily fossils. Following its Copenhagen run, Psychosphere was adapted into an LED tunnel for the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference with ArtExplora to address the pressing issue of deep-sea mining.
Source: designboom
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