Francis Crick Institute commission

Alex May was awarded a commission to design and create a new digital artwork for permanent installation in the front window of the Francis Crick Institute in London. Announced on 1 June 2017, the project would become Flow State, a large-scale public work developed in response to the institute’s biomedical research, its working culture, and the scientific legacy associated with Francis Crick.

From the outset, the commission was framed not simply as a decorative intervention but as a way of making the institute’s activity visible through art. The planned work would reflect the range of research taking place across the building while also incorporating historical references to Crick’s achievements. That placed the project squarely within May’s wider practice, where digital systems are used to translate complex technical environments into forms that can be sensed, interpreted, and remembered by a public audience.

The announcement matters because it marks the beginning of a substantial long-term commission rather than only the moment of exhibition. Developed across 2017 and launched in January 2018, the resulting installation established Flow State as both a major public artwork and a permanent part of the Francis Crick Institute’s environment, connecting May’s work directly to one of the UK’s leading centres for biomedical discovery.