In ancient Chinese tale, a man walk tirelessly for days in pursuit of the sun. Ultimately, he dies and his body and spirit merges with the landscape.
3d rendering image - SolarScape 2024
I begin my blog with this ancient tale called KuaFu Chasing the Sun. In this tale, the ancient hero Kuafu embarks on an endless journey to chase the sun to protect his people. After days of continuous walking, he dies in the process, and his staff becomes landscape. This story inspired me to rethink the role of the sun in our culture and history and how these themes carry forward into this digital age. In this blog, I will delve into the human relation with the sun, its evolving role in the digital age, insights from my metaverse art practice, and the future possibilities for this project.
3d rendering image - SolarScape 2024
Human Relation With The Sun
Human attitudes toward the sun are complex, blending admire and fear, both of which are relected in daily life. On one hand, we celebrate the sun as a life-giving force, the solar energy power the world, benefit from the sun in promoting heath, and rely on it in agriculture. In many ancient cultures, people will create numerous gods as a symbol of the power and admire of the sun.On the other hand, sun will cause damage to the skin and we protect ourselves it by using sunscreen and sunwear, and sun also cause natural disasters like global warming. It’s fascinating how this distant star affect human life.
3d rendering video - SolarScape 2024
Sun And Body Relation
As I delve deeper into my research, I want to draw some conclusion about the intricate relationship between the sun and the human body. My goal is to gather the full sensory experience by exploring the each sense responds to the sun.
Visually, the sun is a daily presense that shape our time, space, color, shadow, light which affect how we see surroundings. In ancient time through the shadow we can tell the time, and the reflection of the sun and light we can see the color of all the beauty of the world.
Through sense of touch, the skin sense the sun in a tangible way, feeling the warmth and UV rays. This sensitive sense of the body create an intimacy relation with the sun.
Mentally and emotionally, the sun affect our mood and outlook. Sunlight exposure has been shown to improving feelings of happiness. For example if I see sunny day I will feel mostly happy during the whole day but if I can't I will feel sad, known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
3d rendering image - SolarScape 2024
Sun In Digital Age
To discuss the sun in the digital age, I notice a social trend where images of the sun share posts from sunrise to sunset fill our digital spaces. This trend on social media with images and videos to celebrate the sun’s daily journey makes a collective share experience. The sun, in this way, becomes a digital symbol, pass the meaning to bridge our physical and virtual realities and connect people.
This makes me think about the sun’s role can be the same symbol of eternity and light in digital world? I wonder if we could create an endless, illuminating presence in digital space. I want to make a metaverse where we can explore different segment of the sun and create a digitally luminous world where everyone can feel the sun and share the experience of being under the sun together.
ai generative image - Solarscape 2024
Solarscape: Metaverse Art Practice
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Solarscape is a multidisciplinary XR experience that, through 3D modeling, immersive video, and metaverse environments, explores the profound relationship between the human body and the sun. The project reimagines the sun’s cultural, historical, and technological significance in the digital age, merging ancient reverence with futuristic visions of human existence within virtual realities.
metaverse on Spatial (platform) - SolarScape 2024
metaverse on Spatial (platform) - SolarScape 2024
3d rendering image - SolarScape 2024
Future Plan
Can I walk in the virtual world to chase the sun, just like Kuafu?
Are you willing to chase anything through pixels and pixels?
3d rendering image - SolarScape 2024
My next goal is to bring this topic into the discussion of the Kuafu story and how digital space can embody real-life experiences. I’m inspired by Parallel by Harun Farocki, which explores walking toward the boundaries of a game world to show how even endless walk can eventually reach the edge of the digital world. With today’s metaverse concepts, digital spaces aren’t just isolated 3D worlds; instead, I imagine a new, interconnected world with technology, websites, 3D, and AI, offering so many interpretations. I want to research more on whether this spatial world can become a digital, enlightened, infinite existence, like the sun, reflecting the materiality and culture of the digital age.
Jiatong Yao
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