YOU:MATTER: How Data, Art, and Wonder Came Together in Bradford

What happens when you take a city’s health data, mix it with the origins of the universe, and hand it over to a group of boundary-pushing artists? You get YOU:MATTER, an immersive exhibition that asks visitors to see themselves not just as individuals, but as stardust connected to everything around them.

It sounds abstract. But in Bradford, UK City of Culture 2025, it became a lived experience.

The Question Behind the Exhibition

The National Science and Media Museum in Bradford had just finished a £6 million transformation. With new sound and vision galleries opening in 2024, the museum wanted to go further—something ambitious enough to stand alongside the city’s cultural moment. The question they asked was deceptively simple:

How do you make people feel scientific data, not just understand it?

To find an answer, the museum joined forces with Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF), a London-based artist collective known for blending technology, nature, and storytelling. Together with Bradford 2025, they set out to build an exhibition that wasn’t about charts or graphs but about lived, sensory experiences.

You:Matter, Bradford UK City of Culture, 2025, photo by James Medcraft

Building Wonder From Data

The process started locally. Bradford is home to Born in Bradford, one of the largest health studies in the world, which has tracked the wellbeing of thousands of residents for more than a decade. The study offered not just numbers but stories—snapshots of how people live, grow, and connect.

Yet the vision quickly expanded. As MLF’s Robin McNicholas put it, “We went big—we went to the Big Bang.” The narrative arc shifted from Bradford’s population data to the universal fact that the elements inside our bodies were forged in the hearts of stars.

This is how YOU:MATTER took shape: seven interconnected exhibits, each designed to translate the invisible into something you could touch, hear, and feel. Projection rooms. Sculptural forms. Soundscapes. Interactive avatars. All linked by a single theme—that being human is about connection: to each other, to the city, to the universe.

You:Matter, Bradford UK City of Culture, 2025, photo by James Medcraft

Collaboration on an Unusual Scale

Pulling this off required more than artists and curators. Data scientists, sound designers, writers, accessibility specialists, and community focus groups all played roles. Over 50 creative organisations attended early webinars about the project. Eight made it to interviews. In the end, MLF was chosen not only for their artistry but also their willingness to collaborate deeply.

The museum’s Digital Experience Manager, Theresa Macaulay, described her role as keeping everyone aligned: scientists ensuring accuracy, artists pushing creativity, and audiences reminding the team of what really resonates. “True collaboration,” she reflected, “meant disagreement, reframing, and iteration.”

You:Matter, Bradford UK City of Culture, 2025, photo by James Medcraft

Designing for Everyone

One of the most important lessons came from user testing. In the Head in the Clouds exhibit, visitors were meant to stick their heads inside a sculptural cloud to experience the water cycle. But test groups hesitated. The fix? A simple graphic showing someone doing exactly that.

Accessibility shaped the project from the start: dual sensory pathways (visual and auditory), wide walkways, tactile flooring, audio descriptions, and sensory guides all ensured the exhibition wasn’t just spectacular, but inclusive. As Macaulay explained, designing for disabled and neurodivergent audiences didn’t just remove barriers—it enriched the experience for everyone.

You:Matter, Bradford UK City of Culture, 2025, photo by James Medcraft

What Museums Can Learn

For the Science Museum Group and its partners, YOU:MATTER was as much a learning process as it was a finished exhibition. The project stretched everyone involved—technically, creatively, and organisationally—and the lessons have value for any museum considering immersive digital work.

Context matters. Visitors don’t always expect to encounter art installations in science museums. The project team had to think carefully about framing and interpretation so audiences felt grounded. That meant using familiar entry points—like clouds, trees, or the sun—to anchor abstract scientific ideas.

Flexibility is essential. Working with live data, evolving concepts, and a wide range of collaborators meant the vision shifted more than once. Instead of resisting change, the team built flexibility into their process. This adaptability allowed the project to grow from a focus on Bradford’s health data into a universal story about the Big Bang and humanity’s connection to the cosmos.

Communication underpins success. With multiple stakeholders—artists, curators, data scientists, accessibility specialists, and funders—clear communication loops were vital. Regular steering group meetings and day-to-day check-ins kept everyone aligned, while structured opportunities for feedback ensured that no one voice dominated.

Guidelines and expectations matter. Many collaborators came from outside the museum sector. By sharing museum practice standards early, the Science Museum Group created a shared framework that helped manage expectations and avoid misunderstandings.

True collaboration takes time. The project wasn’t just about consensus; it was about making space for disagreement, reframing, and iteration. Marshmallow Laser Feast and the museum team went back and forth on everything from concept to visitor flow, refining ideas until they resonated. That friction ultimately produced stronger outcomes.

Seek expertise when needed. The museum quickly realised that accuracy mattered as much as artistry. Bringing in scientific advisors, like Professor Lewis Dartnell, ensured the exhibition’s claims were both compelling and credible.

Budget for the unknowns. Complex projects always bring surprises—technical challenges, last-minute access needs, or shifts in concept. Setting aside contingency funding gave the team breathing room to solve problems without compromising the experience.

And finally, robustness above all. In digital exhibitions, the most beautiful design means little if it doesn’t work reliably. From infrastructure upgrades to iterative testing, robustness became a mantra repeated throughout the process.

Taken together, these lessons highlight the messy, collaborative reality behind headline-grabbing exhibitions. YOU:MATTER shows that when museums embrace flexibility, commit to accessibility, and invest in robust processes, they can turn scientific data into something that feels like poetry.

You:Matter, Bradford UK City of Culture, 2025, photo by James Medcraft

Why It Matters

At its heart, YOU:MATTER wasn’t about a single artwork. It was an exhibition that turned complex science into something poetic. As one critic put it, “This isn’t just another immersive art installation with mood lighting and a synth soundtrack. It’s a mind-expanding collision of science, technology, and storytelling that invites visitors to rethink who they are and what they’re made of.”

Or, as the project team might say: it was about rediscovering wonder.

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Theresa Macaulay, Digital Experience Manager, Science Museum Group spoke about YOU:MATTER at the Museum Digital Summit 2025.

YOU:MATTER is on at the National Science and Media Museum from 3 Apr 2025 – 22 Feb 2026. Find out more and book your tickets here.