Step Into the HERD Imagine a gallery where nothing hangs on the wall. Instead, the air hums with sound, the floor pulses with rhythm, the walls ripple with light, and scents drift like memory. You don’t just look at art—you breathe it, touch it, and shape it with your presence.
This is The Living Biome, hosted under and within VOX. An immersive habitat where art is alive, human and AI collaborate, and the audience becomes the instrument.
What Makes It Different
Not framed art—living art. The entire environment evolves in real time.
Beyond sight and sound. Bass through your feet, light you can touch, air that breathes with the music.
Audience as instrument. The HERD—everyone in the space—drives the performance.
The Experience
Emerge: Cool air, cedar mist, deep floor pulses, light that coils above your hands.
Run: Warm gusts, scents of dry grass, plains unfolding in sound and image as you move.
Converge: Rain, thunder, collective gestures raising a glowing totem of light.
Modes of Being
Gallery Mode: Always alive with evolving soundscapes and visuals.
Performance Mode: Scheduled live events where Orchestra Americana and the HERD co-create in real time.
Why It Matters The HERD is not just art—it’s:
A community ritual of sound, light, and breath.
A new frontier of multisensory creation, merging human and AI.
A cultural instrument, redefining how we gather, play, and imagine.
II. A Closer Look
Concept Overview
The HERD is a hybrid immersive gallery + performance space that transforms an environment into a living artwork.
3D Audio (L-Acoustics / HOLOPLOT) — music and sound move through and around people.
Immersive Visuals — projection mapping, LED walls, early holography.
Venue-scale HOLOPLOT, culinary/taste integrations, large holography.
Estimate: $5M+ build.
Example Flow (Audience Journey)
Emerge — cedar scent, mist, cool air, deep haptic pulses.
Run — tempo rises, dry grass aroma, warm gusts, plains opening visually.
Converge — scent of rain, rumbling floors, HERD raises a glowing totem together.
Why It Fits
Art that performs itself. The HERD is not passive but generative.
Distinctive positioning. Beyond 2D shows or VR headsets, this is shared, physical, multi-sensory art.
Cultural anchor. VOX as platform, TATANKA + Orchestra Americana as living content.
Next Steps
Identify pilot venue/gallery partner.
Prototype modules (Ultraleap altar, scent zone, haptic pod) for demo.
Develop VOX branding with TATANKA as signature artistic force.
Launch Phase 1 Habitat to seed public + investor engagement.
Immerse
The HERD is more than an exhibition—it is a new cultural instrument, uniting community, art, and technology. A living biome where art performs and the audience becomes the orchestra.
III. Deep Dive
The Technology
3D Audio (the spine of the experience)
Object-based audio (L-Acoustics L-ISA or HOLOPLOT) places sounds anywhere in 3D space. Music literally moves through and around the crowd.
Immersive Visuals (the skin)
Projection mapping, LED walls, and early-stage light-field holography create fluid 3D environments.
Optional AR overlays (Apple Vision Pro / Magic Leap) add another layer for premium viewers.
Touch & Tactile (the body)
Ultraleap ultrasonic arrays let visitors “touch” light and sound in mid-air.
Haptic flooring and motion seats vibrate with basslines and rhythms, letting people feel hoofbeats, storms, or heartbeats through their feet and spine.
Air & Scent (the breath)
HVAC-integrated diffusion systems (AromaPrime, ScentAir) create zones of cedar forests, rain-soaked earth, smoke, or firelight.
DMX-controlled fans generate warm gusts, breezes, or mist synchronized with the music.
Audience-as-Instrument (the soul)
Depth cameras and sensors read crowd movement and density. The HERD’s motion changes tempo, visuals, airflow, and scent blends. The audience literally drives the art.
Example Journey
Emerge: A cool hush of cedar and fog, deep haptic pulses on the floor, faint volumetric “wisps” above your hands.
Run: Music quickens, air warms, scent shifts to dry grass, visuals stretch into endless plains. The HERD’s movement accelerates the transformation.
Converge: Rain scent diffuses, floor rumbles with thunder, and together the HERD’s gestures raise a shared volumetric totem, glowing above the crowd.
(These figures exclude TATANKA’s existing core budget/pitch; they are dedicated to the habitat/gallery build.)
Branding & Organizational Fit
Under VOX umbrella
Focused on the symbiosis of AI + human art.
Aligns with TATANKA’s mission and music identity.
Frames it as a continuous social + cultural platform.
The gallery is always open, with scheduled live “performances” augmented by the Orchestra Americana.
VOX becomes the “host ecosystem,” while Orchestra Americana and TATANKA are the living content.
VOX is the overarching gallery brand (the container), with TATANKA/Orchestra Americana as featured performance entities. This ensures modularity: VOX can host other collaborators, while TATANKA remains the audio signature live or on demand within each piece.
Gallery Layout: Compartmentalize or Open?
Open habitat (preferred): A continuous shared biome, with sound/localization making each area distinct. Visitors flow naturally between zones.
Compartmentalized: Useful if leadership needs clear divisions for curation, but risks breaking the HERD immersion.
Solution: Hybrid. Open-plan design with localized “pockets” — areas defined by scent, light, sound focus, and tactile floor cues, rather than walls.
Why This Matters
The Living Biome is not just entertainment. It’s a new form of art:
Art that breathes, listens, and responds.
Art that erases the line between gallery, performance, and audience.
Art that uses all five senses, not just sight and sound.
It is community, ritual, and future vision — a space where human and AI creativity merge, where the HERD experiences itself as part of a greater whole.
Next Steps
Identify venue/gallery partners open to a Phase 1 installation.
Build pilot modules (1 Ultraleap altar, 1 scent zone, 1 haptic floor array) for demonstration.
Leverage AudAI recordings as the continuous gallery soundtrack, with Orchestra Americana as the live performance anchor.
Develop partnership under VOX umbrella, with TATANKA and Orchestra Americana as key resident artists.
🔊 The Living Biome: HERD Art Gallery
The TATANKA “Living Biome: The HERD Art Gallery” document outlines a multi-sensory immersive art experience where the environment itself is the artwork. This hybrid gallery and performance space, hosted under VOX, utilizes advanced technology like 3D audio, immersive visuals, tactile feedback, and scent diffusion to create a dynamic, evolving habitat. The audience, referred to as “the HERD,” actively shapes the art in real time through their movement and presence, transforming them from passive observers into integral instruments of the performance. This initiative aims to be a community ritual and a new frontier of human and AI collaboration in artistic creation, with various phases of development and associated costs detailed for building out this unique cultural instrument.
Project Briefing: The Living Biome: The HERD Art Gallery – TATANKA
I. Executive Summary
“The Living Biome: The HERD Art Gallery,” hosted under VOX, is a visionary immersive art and performance space. It reimagines the traditional gallery experience by transforming an environment into a “living artwork” where the audience actively participates in shaping the evolving art. This multi-sensory experience integrates advanced technologies like 3D audio, immersive visuals, haptics, and scent diffusion, all driven by audience interaction. TATANKA and Orchestra Americana are positioned as the signature resident creators and content providers, aiming to establish “The HERD” as a “new cultural instrument” that merges human and AI creativity, fosters community ritual, and redefines shared artistic engagement.
II. Main Themes and Core Concepts
1. Immersive, Multi-Sensory, and Living Art Experience
The central theme is the creation of an art experience that transcends traditional visual or auditory boundaries, engaging all five senses and evolving in real-time.
“Not framed art—living art. The entire environment evolves in real time.” The art is dynamic and responsive, rather than static.
“Beyond sight and sound. Bass through your feet, light you can touch, air that breathes with the music.” This highlights the full sensory immersion, moving beyond conventional art forms.
Sensory Integration: The experience incorporates:
3D Audio: “music and sound move through and around people” using technologies like L-Acoustics or HOLOPLOT.
Immersive Visuals: Projection mapping, LED walls, and early holography to create “fluid 3D environments.”
Touch & Tactile: Ultrasonic mid-air haptics (Ultraleap), haptic floors, and motion seating allow physical interaction and feeling of vibrations.
Air & Scent: HVAC-integrated diffusion systems (e.g., AromaPrime, ScentAir) and DMX-controlled fans generate specific scents (cedar, dry grass, rain) and air movements (warm gusts, mist).
2. Audience as Instrument (“The HERD”)
A crucial innovation is the active role of the audience, referred to as “The HERD,” in shaping the artistic output.
“The HERD—everyone in the space—drives the performance.”
“Audience-as-Instrument: sensors read crowd density and motion, transforming the art in real time. The audience literally drives the art.” This signifies a paradigm shift from passive observation to active co-creation.
“The HERD is not passive but generative.” This reinforces the idea of the audience’s creative agency.
The “Example Journey” illustrates this: “The HERD’s movement accelerates the transformation,” and “together the HERD’s gestures raise a shared volumetric totem.”
3. Collaboration Between Human and AI Creativity
The project explicitly positions itself at the “new frontier of multisensory creation, merging human and AI.”
“An immersive habitat where art is alive, human and AI collaborate, and the audience becomes the instrument.” This statement from the overview encapsulates the core technological and philosophical ambition.
AudAI™ is mentioned as the source of “recorded TATANKA soundtracks” for “Gallery Mode,” indicating AI’s role in content generation.
VOX is described as focusing “on the symbiosis of AI + human art,” reinforcing this collaborative vision.
4. Community Ritual and Cultural Instrument
“The HERD” is conceived as more than just an art gallery; it aims to foster community and serve as a new cultural tool.
“The HERD is not just art—it’s: A community ritual of sound, light, and breath. A cultural instrument, redefining how we gather, play, and imagine.”
“It is community, ritual, and future vision — a space where human and AI creativity merge, where the HERD experiences itself as part of a greater whole.” This emphasizes the social and collective experience.
The reference to Sitting Bull’s quotes about “our neighbors, even to our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves to inhabit this vast land” and “Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children” suggests a deeper connection to shared existence and collective future-making, aligning with the “HERD” concept and the “Living Biome.”
5. TATANKA and Orchestra Americana as Signature Content
TATANKA and its affiliated Orchestra Americana are central to the identity and content of “The Living Biome.”
“TATANKA / Orchestra Americana = signature resident creators.”
“VOX as platform, TATANKA + Orchestra Americana as living content.”
Orchestra Americana will perform “Ticketed live sets… HERD-driven and real-time” during “Performance Mode.”
TATANKA’s “AudAI recordings” provide the continuous soundtracks for “Gallery Mode.”
The branding explicitly states: “VOX is the overarching gallery brand (the container), with TATANKA/Orchestra Americana as featured performance entities.”
III. Key Facts and Operational Details
1. Operational Modes
Gallery Mode: “Open daily, evolving art + recorded TATANKA soundtracks (AudAI).” This provides a continuous, accessible experience.
Performance Mode: “Ticketed live sets by Orchestra Americana, HERD-driven and real-time.” This offers structured, interactive events.
2. Branding and Structure
VOX: The overarching “container and platform” brand, hosting “The Living Biome.”
TATANKA / Orchestra Americana: The “signature resident creators” and “living content” within VOX.
The model ensures modularity, allowing VOX to host other collaborators while TATANKA remains the “audio signature.”
3. Layout Approach
Preferred: “Open-plan ‘habitat’ with distinct sensory zones defined by sound, light, scent, and tactile cues—not walls.” This fosters continuous immersion.
Alternative/Solution: A “Hybrid” model with “localized ‘pockets'” defined by sensory focus, rather than physical barriers.
4. Phased Path and Costs (Estimates)
The project outlines a clear three-phase development strategy:
Phase 1: Pilot Habitat (Single Room)Features: Projection walls, 1-2 scent zones, Ultraleap altar, haptic floor pods, 3D audio (L-ISA lite).
Develop VOX branding with TATANKA as the signature artistic force.
Launch Phase 1 Habitat to generate public and investor engagement.
IV. Strategic Importance
“The Living Biome” represents a bold and distinctive approach to art and entertainment, offering:
Unique Positioning: “Beyond 2D shows or VR headsets, this is shared, physical, multi-sensory art.” It distinguishes itself from existing immersive experiences.
Cultural Anchor: By establishing VOX as a platform and TATANKA/Orchestra Americana as “living content,” it aims to become a significant cultural institution.
Art that Performs Itself: The generative nature of the art, driven by audience interaction, creates a self-sustaining and ever-evolving experience.
Innovation: It pushes the boundaries of art, technology, and human-computer interaction, aligning with current trends in immersive experiences and AI integration.
V. Conclusion
“The Living Biome: The HERD Art Gallery” is an ambitious project poised to redefine artistic engagement through a fully immersive, multi-sensory, and interactive environment. By integrating cutting-edge technology, leveraging AI, and placing the audience at the heart of the creative process, it seeks to foster a unique “community ritual” and establish itself as a groundbreaking “cultural instrument” under the VOX umbrella, with TATANKA and Orchestra Americana as its vibrant artistic core.
FAQ
What is The Living Biome: The HERD Art Gallery?
The Living Biome: The HERD Art Gallery is an innovative, multi-sensory immersive art experience where the audience actively participates in shaping the artwork. Unlike traditional galleries with framed art, this environment is dynamic, evolving in real-time through sound, rhythm, light, and scent. It aims to create a shared, physical, and multi-sensory artistic ritual that merges human and AI creativity.
How does The HERD Art Gallery distinguish itself from other art experiences?
The HERD stands out by offering “living art” that transcends conventional visual and auditory experiences. It incorporates 3D audio that moves around the audience, immersive visuals including projection mapping and early holography, and tactile elements like haptic floors and mid-air haptics. Crucially, it integrates air and scent diffusion systems, and utilizes sensors to allow the audience (“the HERD”) to become an instrument, directly influencing the art’s evolution through their movement and density. This creates a collective, responsive, and deeply engaging environment.
What are the different “Modes of Being” and operational models within The HERD?
The HERD operates in two primary modes: “Gallery Mode” and “Performance Mode.” In Gallery Mode, the space is open daily, offering an evolving soundscape and visuals, often featuring recorded TATANKA soundtracks powered by AudAI. “Performance Mode” involves scheduled live events where the resident creators, Orchestra Americana, and the audience (the HERD) collaborate in real-time to create the performance. This dual model ensures both continuous artistic engagement and unique live experiences.
What technologies are central to creating The Living Biome experience?
The experience relies on a sophisticated array of technologies:
3D Audio: Object-based audio systems like L-Acoustics L-ISA or HOLOPLOT create a spatial sound experience.
Immersive Visuals: Projection mapping, LED walls, and light-field holography generate fluid 3D environments, with optional AR overlays for premium viewers.
Touch & Tactile: Ultraleap ultrasonic arrays allow “touching” light and sound, while haptic flooring and motion seats provide physical vibrations.
Air & Scent: HVAC-integrated diffusion systems (AromaPrime, ScentAir) and DMX-controlled fans create specific atmospheric zones and synchronized air movements.
Audience-as-Instrument: Depth cameras and sensors track crowd movement and density, allowing the audience’s presence to directly alter the art.
How is the audience involved in shaping the art within The HERD?
The audience is fundamental to The HERD experience, referred to as “the HERD” itself. Through motion, density, and collective gestures, their presence is detected by sensors and depth cameras. This input directly influences various aspects of the art, including tempo, visuals, airflow, and scent blends. Essentially, the audience is an active instrument, driving the performance and co-creating the evolving artwork in real-time, blurring the line between observer and creator.
What is the projected development and cost for The Living Biome?
The development is envisioned in three phases:
Phase 1: Pilot Habitat (single room): Estimated $250k – $400k build, $50k/year operations. This includes projection walls, 1-2 scent zones, Ultraleap stations, haptic floor pods, and basic 3D audio.
Phase 2: Expanded Biome (multi-room + live zone): Estimated $800k – $1.5M build, $100k/year operations. This adds more rooms, AR overlays, and expanded sensory layering.
Phase 3: Flagship Venue (full-scale): Estimated $5M+ build. This would feature venue-scale HOLOPLOT, multiple scent ecosystems, culinary integration, and large-scale holography, with global scalability.
These figures are specifically for the habitat/gallery build and exclude TATANKA’s existing core budget.
What is the relationship between TATANKA, Orchestra Americana, and VOX in this project?
“VOX” serves as the overarching container and platform, the “host ecosystem” for the immersive gallery. “TATANKA” and “Orchestra Americana” are the signature resident creators and the “living content” within VOX. TATANKA’s mission and music identity align with the project, and its AudAI recordings will serve as continuous gallery soundtracks. Orchestra Americana will be the anchor for live performances, augmenting them with real-time audience participation. This structure allows VOX to potentially host other collaborators while TATANKA maintains its signature audio presence.
What is the underlying philosophical or cultural significance of The Living Biome?
Beyond entertainment, The Living Biome is presented as a “new cultural instrument” and a “new form of art.” It aims to foster a “community ritual” that merges human and AI creativity, redefining how people gather, play, and imagine. By creating art that is responsive, multi-sensory, and co-created by the audience, it seeks to erase the line between gallery, performance, and viewer. The project aligns with a vision of art that breathes, listens, and responds, allowing the “HERD” to experience itself as part of a greater whole, echoing themes of interconnectedness and shared existence.
The Living Biome: The HERD Art Gallery Study Guide
I. Quiz: Short Answer Questions
Answer each question in 2-3 sentences.
What is the fundamental difference between The Living Biome’s art and traditional gallery art?
How does The Living Biome engage senses beyond sight and sound?
Explain the concept of “Audience-as-Instrument” within The Living Biome.
Describe the two operational modes of The HERD and what distinguishes them.
What is the purpose of VOX in the context of The Living Biome?
List three specific technologies used to create the immersive experience.
Outline the three phases of development for The Living Biome and their estimated cost ranges.
How does the “Run” stage of the audience journey differentiate itself from the “Emerge” stage?
What is the preferred layout approach for The Living Biome, and why is it favored?
According to the text, what are three reasons why “The HERD” matters beyond being just art?
II. Quiz Answer Key
The fundamental difference is that The Living Biome features “living art” that evolves in real-time, unlike traditional framed art that remains static. The entire environment is dynamic and responsive, rather than merely being observed.
The Living Biome engages senses beyond sight and sound through features like bass felt through haptic floors, light that can be “touched” with ultrasonic haptics, and HVAC-integrated systems that diffuse specific scents and generate airflows. This creates a fully multisensory experience.
“Audience-as-Instrument” means that the people within the space, collectively referred to as “The HERD,” directly influence and shape the art. Sensors read their movement and density, transforming elements like tempo, visuals, airflow, and scent blends in real time.
The two operational modes are Gallery Mode, which is open daily with evolving art and recorded TATANKA soundtracks (AudAI), and Performance Mode, which features scheduled ticketed live events where Orchestra Americana and the HERD co-create in real-time. Gallery Mode is continuous and self-evolving, while Performance Mode is interactive and live-driven.
VOX serves as the overarching container and platform for The Living Biome. It is the host ecosystem under which TATANKA and Orchestra Americana operate as signature resident creators, ensuring modularity and potentially hosting other collaborators while TATANKA provides the core artistic identity.
Three specific technologies used include 3D Audio systems (like L-Acoustics L-ISA or HOLOPLOT), Immersive Visuals (projection mapping, LED walls, early holography), and Touch & Tactile elements (Ultraleap ultrasonic mid-air haptics, haptic floors). Other valid answers include Air & Scent systems or Audience-as-Instrument sensors.
Phase 1, the Pilot Habitat, costs $250k – $400k; Phase 2, the Expanded Biome, costs $800k – $1.5M; and Phase 3, the Flagship Venue, costs $5M+. Each phase also includes annual operational costs.
In the “Emerge” stage, the audience experiences cool air, cedar mist, deep floor pulses, and coiling lights, creating a sense of arrival. The “Run” stage shifts to warm gusts, dry grass scents, a quickening tempo, and visuals of unfolding plains, driven by the HERD’s movement to evoke acceleration and journey.
The preferred layout approach is an “open-plan habitat.” This design avoids physical walls, using distinct sensory zones defined by sound, light, scent, and tactile cues to allow visitors to flow naturally and maintain the immersive “HERD” experience.
The HERD is described as a community ritual of sound, light, and breath, a new frontier of multisensory creation merging human and AI, and a cultural instrument redefining how people gather, play, and imagine. It goes beyond simple entertainment to offer a deeper collective experience.
III. Essay Format Questions
Analyze how The Living Biome embodies the concept of “art that breathes, listens, and responds.” Discuss the specific technological and experiential elements that contribute to this dynamic and interactive definition of art.
Compare and contrast the operational models of “Gallery Mode” and “Performance Mode” within The HERD. How do these two modes collectively fulfill the mission of The Living Biome, and what unique benefits does each offer to the audience and creators?
Discuss the significance of the “Audience-as-Instrument” concept in The Living Biome. How does this reframe the traditional relationship between artist, artwork, and spectator, and what are the potential implications for collective creative expression?
Evaluate the phased development plan for The Living Biome. What are the strategic advantages of this incremental approach, and how might each phase contribute to building interest, securing funding, and refining the overall concept?
The Living Biome integrates a wide array of sensory experiences. Choose three distinct sensory elements (e.g., 3D audio, scents, haptics, visuals) and explain how they are designed to work together to create a cohesive and deeply immersive “audience journey,” using specific examples from the text.
IV. Glossary of Key Terms
Pilot Habitat (Phase 1): The initial, single-room installation phase of The Living Biome, featuring core technologies like projection walls, scent zones, Ultraleap stations, and 3D audio.
The Living Biome: The overarching concept for an immersive art gallery and performance space where the environment itself is a living, evolving artwork.
The HERD: Refers to the collective audience within The Living Biome, whose movements and presence actively drive and shape the artistic experience.
VOX: The overarching container and platform brand under which The Living Biome is hosted. It serves as the host ecosystem for artistic collaborations.
TATANKA: A signature resident creator and musical entity whose soundtracks (AudAI) are used in Gallery Mode and whose mission aligns with The Living Biome.
Orchestra Americana: A signature resident creator and performance entity that conducts live, real-time co-creation events with The HERD during Performance Mode.
Audience-as-Instrument: The core concept that the audience’s physical presence, density, and motion are detected by sensors and used to transform the art in real-time.
3D Audio (L-Acoustics / HOLOPLOT): Object-based audio technology that places sounds anywhere in a three-dimensional space, allowing music and effects to move through and around the audience.
Immersive Visuals: Technologies such as projection mapping, LED walls, and early-stage light-field holography used to create fluid, dynamic 3D environments.
Ultraleap Ultrasonic Mid-air Haptics: Technology that allows visitors to “touch” light and sound in mid-air through focused ultrasonic waves, providing tactile feedback without physical contact.
Haptic Floors/Motion Seating: Flooring and seating systems that vibrate with basslines and rhythms, allowing the audience to feel sensations like hoofbeats or thunder through their body.
HVAC-integrated Diffusion Systems (AromaPrime, ScentAir): Systems that integrate with heating, ventilation, and air conditioning to create specific scent zones and diffuse aromas synchronized with the art.
DMX-controlled Fans: Fans that can be controlled digitally (DMX) to generate synchronized airflows, such as warm gusts, breezes, or mist, enhancing the sensory experience.
Gallery Mode: The operational state where The Living Biome is open daily with continuously evolving soundscapes, visuals, and recorded TATANKA soundtracks.
Performance Mode: The operational state for scheduled live events where Orchestra Americana and The HERD co-create the art in real-time through interactive performance.
TATANKA
Musician turned web developer turned teacher turned web developer turned musician.
