Coral encased in a translucent membrane stands at the center, catching the low desert light. Boulder coral and branching stalks gather at its base.

Rising CO2 is making the ocean more acidic, and coral is losing the calcium carbonate that forms its skeleton, pushed out of the habitat it depends on. This project imagines coral surviving in the desert, an environment defined by the absence of the one thing it needs most. Each form was shaped through directed prompts, then refined and curated by hand. The result questions how we define nature in the first place.