Dead Snow (Goasstejiegna) is a deeply personal interactive art installation from Stockholm-based creative studio Untitled Services. Commissioned by MAD Arts, the work uses large-scale 3D scanning, machine learning, and cutting-edge immersive technology to reconstruct the Swedish Arctic in real time. The artwork translates the emotional experience of a remote landscape into a space visitors can physically step inside — bringing the silence, atmosphere, and vastness of the Arctic into one of its most unexpected and seemingly contradictory locations: the sun-drenched heat of South Florida.‍

How It's Built

To capture the source material, Untitled Services traveled to Abisko — 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle — alongside local nature photographer Peter Rosén, who has a lifetime of experience in the area. Using drones and advanced camera systems, the team gathered the expansive visual datasets needed to 3D scan the mountains at high resolution. Machine learning then processes this data to reconstruct the landscape in real time inside the installation, moving seamlessly between photorealism and abstraction, remixing and reinterpreting the landscape as it evolves.‍

The Space

The landscape is projected across four large walls and the floor, completely surrounding visitors. Playing field recordings captured in the mountains, a Dolby Atmos sound system is concealed in the ceiling and behind the projection surfaces. The room also has its own climate control, allowing a whisper of the crisp Arctic chill to permeate the space.

From the ceiling hang three large acrylic controllers, custom-designed and built by Untitled Services. These wheels sit somewhere between a sculptural object and a DJ turntable, inviting visitors to reach out and spin. 

Each wheel controls a different element of the environment. One governs the sun, moving the landscape through the Arctic's extreme seasonal cycles: from the deep ethereal twilight of the Polar Night, when the sun never rises above the horizon, to the Midnight Sun, when daylight never ends. The second shifts the viewer’s movement through the terrain — slowly rotating or drifting to reveal entirely new scenery — reflecting Sámi relationships to land, where movement is deeply connected to respect for nature’s equilibrium. The third wheel controls the wind, a force that in the Arctic carries both sacred significance and the difference between survival and death.‍

The Feeling

The installation moves seamlessly between photorealism and abstraction, remixing and reinterpreting the Scandinavian Arctic tundra to evoke a feeling of emptiness and silence that exists only within that vast landscape. This sense of expansive emptiness is something that’s been recreated throughout art and design for generations, and is one of the cultural forces from which Scandinavian minimalism emerged.  Research into natural environments suggests that landscapes like these can have measurable effects on human wellbeing, influencing stress levels, mood, and our sense of connection to place.

Most of the time, the installation is quiet and meditative. But briefly, and without warning, something shifts. A looming darkness descends. The snow turns black and begins to melt. Rain pours. The soundscape turns sinister. A red sun bleeds into the sky. Lights flicker. Jump cuts. And then, as quickly as it arrived, it passes.

Dead Snow (Goasstejiegna) is a commission by MAD Arts. Following its premiere,  the installation is expected to travel to additional international venues.