Flashing & Fleshing
Dream, Illusion, Bubbles, Shadows 夢幻泡影
Both Flashing & Fleshing and Dream, Illusion, Bubbles, Shadows were projects created for Meshroom, a social choreography experiment series by curator and movement artist Marika Niko. In Meshroom, Niko curates an open dance floor where audiences receive no instructions, yet are guided by prompts—selected books, poems, movements, videos, live music, furniture, and lighting—that subtly direct their positioning and engagement. Held every three months, this recurring event draws a diverse community, including many outside of Duke, who frequently return to participate.
Through Meshroom, I explored how the "ingredient" I create are "cooked" within this unique setting. Flashing & Fleshing is an AR work using cameras linked to digital filters, distorting and projecting images onto a mattress for visitors to lie on, move, or cuddle.
Dream, Illusion, Bubbles, Shadows presented 3D-printed objects designed to evoke responses in the body—whether through small handheld shapes or oversized rings that accommodate an entire arm. My goal was to examine movement as ideology, exploring how open-ended interactions with redesigned technology can shift ideological frameworks by encouraging new physical responses, in a collective environment. These explorations informed the more complex systems proposed in my dissertation project.
When designing the work, I wanted it to engage with people's bodies by designing objects and projections ergonomically related to the human form while offering no clear instructions on how to interact with the object or projection. Without guidance, how would people respond? How would they engage?
I was thinking again about Hegel’s hammer—you see something, but without an immediate understanding of its purpose, how do you relate to it? In these moments, humans feel more like animals—like encountering a cat feeder: there’s something here for me, but how do I interact with it? It becomes an intuitive process of discovery.
When technology is rigidly designed with a predefined use, there’s no room for exploration. What I’m developing is about that animal-like state of uncertainty and discovery—the space before function is assigned, where exploration is still possible.
