Project Description

Commissioned as a permanent installation for Deloitte Greenhouse Toronto, What is this?, adapts the Brain Terrains thinking to a strategic innovation context.

The Greenhouse supports teams working through complex, high-stakes challenges that resist conventional solutions. The installation operates as a cognitive catalyst, using inverted scales and subject–object reversals to unsettle habitual frames of reference.

Anchored by the Zen koan “What is this?”, the work invites sustained curiosity rather than resolution. Standing before the installation, participants encounter a space where reflection, dialogue, and reframing become possible. Deloitte staff integrated the work into facilitated programming, drawing on leadership and inquiry models from the THNK School of Creative Leadership.

Here, Brain Terrains functions as an experiential infrastructure to support Deloitte Greenhouse clients in thinking differently.

The Conceptual Shift

In the Deloitte Greenhouse context, Brain Terrains evolved from a reflective art practice into an experiential framework for reframing. The conceptual challenge was not to communicate a message, but to create conditions in which new ways of thinking could emerge.

By inverting scales and unsettling familiar subject–object relationships, the installation disrupted habitual patterns of perception. Anchored by the Zen koan “What is this?”, the work resisted interpretation and instead invited sustained curiosity. The installation functioned less as an object to be understood and more as a cognitive prompt, encouraging participants to slow down, question assumptions, and remain open to ambiguity.

Why It Mattered

Within the Greenhouse environment, the installation became a catalyst for dialogue, reflection, and sense-making. Standing in front of the work created a shared reference point from which teams could explore complex challenges without defaulting to predefined solutions.

The piece supported Deloitte’s broader goal of reframing conventional thinking by offering an experiential counterbalance to analytic problem-solving. Here, Brain Terrains operated as a catalyst—helping to create the mental and emotional conditions necessary for insight, rather than prescribing outcomes.