The Living Reef

The problem with the original

The QUT Cube had a Virtual Reef — an earlier interactive experience created for the space's launch. It was well-regarded, but it had a problem: the rights history for its assets was unresolved. Nobody could say with certainty who owned what. That meant it could never be sold, licensed, or distributed beyond the Cube's walls. As Studio Manager, I was tasked with building a replacement that wouldn't have that problem.

The Living Reef was the answer. From the very first planning session, I made IP ownership a hard requirement on every asset and tool in the project. Nothing went in without a clear chain of rights.

The technology

The reef is built on procedural generation — coral that grows mathematically according to biological rules rather than being modelled by hand. To my knowledge, this was the first time this approach had been used in this context. The sea creatures are AI-driven, reacting to visitors and to each other. The experience runs across multiple configurations for different STEM workshop formats.

The procedural coral system later found a second life in an unexpected direction: when we needed to build a Death Star surface for the Sphere installation on May 4th, we tuned the same algorithm. Mathematically grown coral became a battle station. The underlying technology was more flexible than anyone anticipated.

Securing the rights

One of the more complex parts of the project was footage rights. A local cameraman held a substantial stock library of footage of the animals we wanted to feature. I negotiated a licence that covered both current use and future on-selling — the kind of arrangement that takes patience and precision to get right, but that cleared the experience for commercial distribution.

The Indigenous commission

When the project reached the point of needing an identity, I engaged We Are 27 Creative, a local Indigenous design agency. This was a deliberate choice.

The Great Barrier Reef holds deep significance for Indigenous Australians, who refer to it as "sea country." Their ancestors lived on land that is now underwater, driven inland by rising sea levels approximately 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. For a long time, this was dismissed as legend. Science eventually confirmed it — geological evidence validated what the oral tradition had preserved for tens of thousands of years. That makes Indigenous Australians the custodians of one of the longest continuous verbal traditions in human history, stretching back almost 40,000 years.

Commissioning an Indigenous agency to create the logo was an acknowledgement of that connection. The process required several rounds of refinement — the first attempts were not what I needed — and navigating that creative feedback carefully, given the cultural weight of the relationship, required genuine sensitivity. The outcome was worth the patience.

After launch

The Living Reef ran as a STEM education experience for schools across southeast Queensland. It was later extended for an ABC TV coral spawning special, which brought the experience to a national audience beyond the Cube's walls. The IP ownership work done at the start made that extension possible without complication.