SHOWstudio commissioned me to design an interactive, immersive roaming user interface to present Brian Dowling’s Essay: Fire. The brief was to move beyond static image presentation and instead create a way for the audience to feel as if they were wandering through the rooms alongside Brian in the aftermath of the fire. The navigation was deliberately fluid and exploratory, encouraging users to discover details at their own pace—mirroring the act of moving through a real, disrupted domestic space.

My approach was to strip the design back to its essentials so the photography could speak with maximum impact. Subtle transitions, atmospheric pacing, and an intuitive roaming layout gave the project a contemplative rhythm, guiding the viewer but never forcing them. The result is an experience that feels more like inhabiting a memory than browsing a gallery, allowing users to uncover both the devastation and intimacy in Brian’s documentation of his mother’s home.