Synthetic Garden | VR, Performance (2020)

Description

Integrating human bodies, gestures, imaginary creatures with elements from man-made world and nature, Synthetic Garden unwraps a world inspired by the unheeded nature, fantasy fictions, traditional Chinese garden art (Yuanlin) and rituals, speculating the relationship between man and nature in the digital neutropia.

It is also an interactive audio-visual experience with spatial music arranged throughout the journey.

Tool

Unreal Engine, Blender, Oculus2, OBS Studio, Twitch.com

︎ Synthetic Garden in traditional Chinese architecture

During the second iteration of the Synthetic Garden project, I had the opportunity to collaborate with artist Bingyi 冰逸 and architect Zhang Zhiyang 张之杨 to create a fusion of traditional Chinese architecture and gardens with the dreamy digital garden, bridging the realms of old and new, physical and virtual, reality and imagination.

The opening ceremony coincides with the winter solstice of 2020. Bingyi and the Little World Museum invited young multimedia artist Caren Wenqing Ye and architect Zhang Zhiyang to collaborate on the multimedia park project "A Tour in Snowy Mo Chou". Every visitor to the Mo Chou Lake studio can experience the digital park, feel the winter solstice irises in the snow, the lotus pond in full bloom, and the whimsical amusement park full of childlike fun.

Architect Zhang Zhiyang created a "growth architecture" plan for the irises garden: the garden he designed is like a living, breathing white life form that spreads and grows in the garden every year. Multimedia artist Caren Wenqing Ye presented the scene of winter snow and blooming flowers in all seasons in Zhang Zhiyang's "growth architecture".