This presentation examines the artist Stephen Cripps (1952–1982) and his unrealized Floating Fire Machine (1975), a proposed pyrotechnic performance on the River Thames. Working from Cripps’ archive, which includes drawings, diagrams, and fragments of sculptural studies, I have developed a series of animated reconstructions that reimagine these ephemeral, self-consuming systems within a digital environment. The project sits at the intersection of archival research, ecological metaphor, and media archaeology, using animation as a tool for both restoration and speculation. In the face of ecological crisis and systemic collapse, Cripps’ fire machines offer both a warning and a model for renewal. They are systems designed to burn, transform, and self-destruct, performing cycles of energy transfer and decay that parallel regenerative processes found in natural ecologies, where fire often precedes new growth. This research is presented through a performance lecture combining speculative animation with archival material collected during my research fellowship at the Henry Moore Institute. The presentation situates Floating Fire Machine within an ecological framework and proposes alternative imaginings of its intent and purpose on the Thames, where combustion becomes both an act of mourning and a gesture toward regeneration.