Entering a Philip Beesley installation is like walking into an artificial forest or passing through a living, breathing creature. The Canadian artist and architect is a pioneer in responsive architecture. Vesica is an intricate web with thousands of interactive components fitted with sensors and microprocessors. It responds to visitors, contracting and retracting. The work's title refers to the tradition of depicting holy figures with a luminous aura. Professor in the School of Architecture, University of Waterloo, and principal at Toronto design collective PBAI, Beesley is in town as keynote speaker for the DeSForM (Design Semantics Form and Movement) 2012 Conference: Meaning Matter Making, at Victoria University's School of Design. The school's students are involved in the work's construction and installation.