London Film Festival Expanded 2026 Review: Water Body
At St Martin-in-the-Fields, a viewing of Water Body was held, created by Marshmallow Laser Feast. This deeply intentional digital art installation brings its viewers on a journey through the flowing connections of water in all shapes and forms. From a bathroom sink to vast oceans, it acts as a commentary on water biodiversity and visualises the world’s streams and oceans as a kind of circulatory system.
The experience begins with the observer being asked to take a ceramic bowl of water. As you sit down you are encouraged to hold, feel and even drink the water provided as the room darkens. In pitch black, an excerpt from Robert Macfarlane’s Is water alive? is narrated by the author himself. He reflects on water as a connective system of life that binds all things, while the background is filled with the sound of seagulls, rain and rushing water. With only your sense of hearing, you are immersed in a narrative constructed purely through sound.
Drawing on data gathered from a range of sources, including the Copernicus Marine Service’s Global Ocean Physics Reanalysis, decades of satellite imaging, NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission and several other research projects, the piece presents an animated render of a globe. It shows accurate ocean currents and active animal migratory patterns displayed in a beautiful visualisation which appears from the pitch darkness through a slow transition.
The piece is an effective immersive experience with a surprisingly engaging hook by engaging unexpected senses by limiting your vision and instead asking you to interpret its premise through hearing and touch. The excellent sound design by James Bulley aids in this and makes for an effective introduction. As the sound design takes a back seat, the central screen begins to illuminate with small dots, almost resembling stars, and the entire image slowly progresses into the full feature.
The impressive display of detail and animation is used well, but the shift loses some of what made the opening section so effective. The audio is scaled back, the visuals become the centre and the enthralling monologue ends. The remainder of the piece invites you to ponder the meaning of the ocean and the globe as it leaves you only with a swirling render of the globe. There are many aspects to appreciate, such as the accurately researched migratory patterns of different animals and the vibrant blues enveloping the screen. Personally, I think the presentation of the Earth is highly effective, but it arguably loses some of the expert sound design and subtlety of the first section as it tries to convey the rest of its concepts.
Water Body is, in summary, an elegant, audio visual experience that depicts deep and important ideas about global conversation and the nature of water, in a particularly simple manner. The loss of this simplicity is the biggest detriment overall as the use of darkness and sound is abandoned, but in the end it still sticks the landing with its stunning animation and refreshing creative element.
Water Body is showing at The Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, until 18 October as part of the BFI London Film Festival. More information can be found here.
Edited by Joanne Baranga, Gaming Editor
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