For the 17th iteration of London Design Week, Gemfields has joined creative forces with designer Dan Tobin Smith and studio The Experience Machine to present a spatial installation that will be shown at Collins Music Hall, Islington.

Titled ‘VOID’, the installation will evoke an immersive, multisensorial experience, where visitors can travel through a series of large-scale projections that showcase the expanded space inside gemstones and trace the overlapping boundaries between nature and design.

The exhibition will feature a photography series that will breathe life into Mozambican rubies and Zambian emeralds from Gemfields’ mines, dating back millions of years. The photographs will depict tiny microcosms magnified into abstract structures akin to the galaxy.  The installation is a meditation on the concept of scale and containment, and employs spatial design to examine the natural borders formed within mineral formations.

To up the futuristic mood of the installation, the experience will be scored with harmonized layers of human voice with the use of the female electronic drone choir NYX. The showcase will run from 14-22 September during the nine-day festival, and will feature a special masterclass, on 17 September, with Gemmologist Joanna Hardy and designer Smith, who will focus on the history of gemstones, their origins and what makes them unique.