HyperBody Dungeon: UCCA Edge, Mixed media installation: pneumatic membrane, cloth flag, dodecahedron plaster mold, VR equipment and computer, Shanghai, China, 2022
Commissioned by UCCA Center for Contemporary Art
This work was made in cooperation with the architect Liu Binbin. The artist would like to thank "With in/out Linhai" artist residency program, Tian Fengyuan, Xu Ziyi, Hao Jianguo, Wu Jingzhi, Zhang Boxiao, and grannysmilkproductsplant for their assistance and support.
HyperBody Dungeon: UCCA Edge is a mixed-reality architecture rooted in the Sculpture Garden. It includes the inflatable structure "MULE (Mobile Utility Lunar Excavator)βs Drop Pod Mod" and three video game levels "Garden Portal", "Stratholme.GoStop", and "Project Search". The architecture as a whole signals gamespaces and in-game items intermediating physical and virtual boundaries, and the players are invited into an audio-visual spatial experience of "multi-fandom cosmotechnics".
HyperBody Dungeon: UCCA Edge integrates multiplayer online and single-player offline VR game levels. Multiplayer online levels mediate virtual and physical space, link online and offline; via the entanglement of physical and virtual, single-player offline VR levels delve into ACGN (animation, comics, games, and novels) fandoms and explore urban space, culture, technology, and Chinese cultivation novel.
"Garden Portal" is a 3D scan mod of the Sculpture Garden. In it, players are encouraged to find the portals to "Stratholme.GoStop" and "Project Search".Β
"Stratholme.GoStop" is a Chinese fan-made visual novel game based on Warcraft. The story takes place in the welfare zone of Ordnance Factory 404, two junior high school students meet in an internet bar and prepare for the tournament. Through their entanglements between real life, study, and the game world, they become involved with the narrative of game protagonist Alsaceβs culling of Stratholme. As the tournament nears, another untold killing happens...Β
"Project Search" is a visual novel game based on Chinese science fictions and cultivation novels. The story takes place in the old town of Linhai. The collapse of two ancient pagodas on Jinzi Mountain reveals the exploration of parallel dimension and the underground grotto-heaven. Qian Jiangmin, a young scholar who has just recovered from a serious illness, travelled through Dunhuang and Chongqing to Linhai to look for his brother. With the help of various scholars and Dao cultivators, he enters the underground grotto-heaven in Linhai old town. As he explores further, the space-time of the ancient city shifts... Qian Jiangmin also realises why he has double vision...