In November 2024, I spent a month at the Domus Artist Residency in Galatina, Southern Italy. Pietra Leccese, the local limestone, has been cherished for centuries for its relative softness, which makes it perfect for intricate sculptures, stunning facades, and ornamental emblems. However, the same qualities that make it so easy to work with also leave it more susceptible to decay—a characteristic vividly evident in the historic palazzi of the region.

To my surprise, I noticed a distinctnatural pattern in the Lecce stone, bearing a remarkable resemblance to Reaction-Diffusion or Turing Patterns — phenomena well-known in informatics and chemical physics. The unique materiality of Lecce stone inspired me to 3D scan a piece from a nearby quarry, using it as the basis for digital simulations exploring various forms of dissolution.

In my initial simulation, the digital stone drops half a meter onto the kitchen table at the Domus Residency. Upon impact, it shatters into multiple fragments, producing a dust cloud that feels disproportionately intense for the scale of the event.