Experience Pollination, an interactive sculpture by artist Chris Combs, as part of the interactive art experiences in the 50 for 50 exhibition program.

This flower-shaped artwork responds to faces and spoken words. Its camera recognizes faces and splays them into rotating flower-like shapes; a central microphone listens for speech and shows its transcripts on a multitude of small screens.

In this work, Combs is analogizing the data that we spread when interacting in life to pollen: millions of invisible particles flowing in all directions with uncontrollable effects.

Chris Combs is an artist based in Washington, D.C and Mount Rainier, Maryland whose sculptural artworks both incorporate and question technologies. Chris was the 2025 Artist in Residence at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, and is a five-time recipient of the DC CAH Arts and Humanities Fellowship. He is a graduate of the Corcoran College of Art + Design and was a photo editor for National Geographic. He joined Otis Street Arts Project in 2021.

His show Supercycle (IA&A at Hillyer, 2023) invoked cycles of hype, such as “AI” and cryptocurrencies. The Next Big Thing (MoCA Arlington Innovation Studio, 2024) recreated Hokusai’s Great Wave off Kanagawa with E-waste that reacted to visitors’ faces and movements. Outsized Effects (Gradient Projects, Thomas, WV, 2023–4) included the room-sized Allegheny Data Company, examining data mining through the visual lens of coal mining. Industry Standards (McLean Project for the Arts, 2023) featured 18 works of reclaimed industrial components, reflecting on surveillance and environmental destruction. His artwork Periscopes is permanently installed in Buzzard Point, D.C., and Madness Method, a collaboration with David Greenfieldboyce, was part of Georgetown GLOW.