Merry Go Round is a 360° immersive video installation incorporating audience interaction. Taking the carousel as its central image, the work interrogates the entangled relations between entertainment, consumption, and labor. It begins with the gesture of scanning a QR code to "insert a coin" — admission transformed into a sanctioned ritual of participation. Through a visual structure of perpetual rotation, accumulation, and expansion, it constructs a cyclical system of invitation, order, and engulfment. As the imagery unfolds, the carousel evolves from a familiar amusement ride into a layered, ornately unbalanced "pleasure garden," revealing how joy is organized, distributed, and continuously consumed through individual time, attention, and engagement. The audience is at once spectator and a constitutive part of the very system it activates — experiencing, within the immersive enclosure, the gradual drift from play into loss of control.
Merry Go Round 是一件结合观众交互的 360 度环形沉浸式影像作品,以旋转木马为核心意象,探讨娱乐、消费与劳动之间相互缠绕的关系。作品从扫码"投币"进入游乐园这一动作出发,将"入场"转化为一种被许可的参与仪式,并通过不断旋转、堆叠与扩张的视觉结构,构建出一个由邀请、秩序与吞噬组成的循环系统。随着影像推进,旋转木马逐渐从熟悉的游乐设施演变为一座层层叠叠、繁复失衡的"人间乐园",揭示出快乐如何被组织、分配并持续消耗个体的时间、注意力与投入。观众既是观看者,也是这一系统被激活与维持的一部分,在沉浸式包围中体验从游乐到失控的转变。
Cat Island is a cute hand-tracking VR cleanup game set on a floating micro-island cared for by a spirit cat named Wendy. Players use natural hand gestures to scale the island, search for hidden objects, pick them up, sort them, fill trash bins, and send them away by boat. Beyond cleaning, the project asks: what counts as trash? Objects that humans see as decorations, toys, or everyday items may become pollutants in nature, inviting players to rethink how an object’s identity changes depending on its environment and perspective.
Cat Island 是一个可爱的手势交互 VR 清理游戏,发生在一座由精灵猫 Wendy 守护的漂浮微型岛屿上。玩家通过自然的手部动作缩放岛屿、寻找隐藏物件、抓取、分类、填满垃圾桶,并把它们装上船送走。在清理之外,项目也提出了一个问题:什么才算垃圾? 人类眼中的装饰品、玩具或日常物件,在大自然中也可能成为污染物,从而引导玩家重新思考物件的身份如何因环境和视角而改变。
Dopamine Eyes is a 360° immersive music video inspired by a love story that began during the pandemic, when masks covered most of the face and eyes became the primary way of seeing, recognizing and feeling another person. Set in a surreal beach-like landscape, the project unfolds through a series of eye-related visual motifs, using the eye not only as an image, but as a symbol of intimacy, desire, memory and emotional connection. By building the story around gazes, reflections and eye-shaped spaces, the work transforms a pandemic experience of distance and partial visibility into a dreamlike world of closeness and imagination.
Dopamine Eyes 是一个 360° 沉浸式音乐影像项目,灵感来自一段始于疫情时期的感情关系。在口罩遮住大部分面孔的时刻,眼睛成为人与人之间最直接的识别、感知与情感连接方式。项目将故事放置在一个带有海滩感的超现实空间之中,通过一系列与"眼睛"相关的视觉意象展开叙事。眼睛在这里不仅是一个图像元素,也象征着亲密、欲望、记忆与情绪连接。作品通过凝视、倒影和眼睛形状的空间,把疫情时期那种隔着距离却依然产生情感的体验,转化成一个梦境般的沉浸式世界。
EchoMemo is an AI + MR interactive experience designed for elderly companionship and memory recall. Through voice input, users can speak about people, places, or moments from their past, and the system transforms these memories into glowing spatial orbs within their physical environment. These memory orbs can be placed in different corners of the room, turning the home into a personal memory space. Each orb holds an image, emotion, or fragment of a remembered moment, allowing users to revisit, touch, and share their memories in a gentle and embodied way.
EchoMemo 是一个面向老年群体陪伴与记忆唤起的 AI + MR 交互体验。用户可以通过语音讲述过去的人、地点或片段,系统会将这些记忆转化为现实空间中的发光记忆球。这些记忆球可以被放置在房间的不同角落,让日常居住空间变成一个个人记忆空间。每一个记忆球都承载着一段图像、情绪或回忆碎片,让用户能够以温柔且身体化的方式重新看见、触碰并分享自己的记忆。
The Warming Table is a multiplayer mixed-reality game exploring the environmental impact of everyday food choices. Set around a shared dining table, four players take on different roles and interact with virtual food through hand gestures. By grabbing, eating, freezing, and discussing food items, players learn how carbon emissions, food waste, storage time, and personal needs are connected. The project turns climate education into a social, playful and embodied dining experience.
The Warming Table 是一个多人混合现实游戏,探讨日常食物选择对环境产生的影响。四位玩家围绕同一张餐桌进行游戏,并分别承担不同角色,通过手势与虚拟食物互动。玩家需要抓取、食用、冷冻和讨论桌上的食物,在过程中理解碳排放、食物浪费、保存时间与个人需求之间的关系。项目将气候议题转化为一种社交化、游戏化且身体化的共餐体验。
Merry Go Round is a 360° immersive video installation incorporating audience interaction. Taking the carousel as its central image, the work interrogates the entangled relations between entertainment, consumption, and labor. It begins with the gesture of scanning a QR code to "insert a coin" — admission transformed into a sanctioned ritual of participation. Through a visual structure of perpetual rotation, accumulation, and expansion, it constructs a cyclical system of invitation, order, and engulfment. As the imagery unfolds, the carousel evolves from a familiar amusement ride into a layered, ornately unbalanced "pleasure garden," revealing how joy is organized, distributed, and continuously consumed through individual time, attention, and engagement. The audience is at once spectator and a constitutive part of the very system it activates — experiencing, within the immersive enclosure, the gradual drift from play into loss of control.
Merry Go Round 是一件结合观众交互的 360 度环形沉浸式影像作品,以旋转木马为核心意象,探讨娱乐、消费与劳动之间相互缠绕的关系。作品从扫码"投币"进入游乐园这一动作出发,将"入场"转化为一种被许可的参与仪式,并通过不断旋转、堆叠与扩张的视觉结构,构建出一个由邀请、秩序与吞噬组成的循环系统。随着影像推进,旋转木马逐渐从熟悉的游乐设施演变为一座层层叠叠、繁复失衡的"人间乐园",揭示出快乐如何被组织、分配并持续消耗个体的时间、注意力与投入。观众既是观看者,也是这一系统被激活与维持的一部分,在沉浸式包围中体验从游乐到失控的转变。
The Merry Go Round runs on a participatory activation system that turns the audience into the engine of the experience. Visitors scan a QR code to open a mobile web interface, where they receive a digital ticket and drag a virtual coin into the slot to join the ride. Every input is counted as part of a shared activation system, and once the required number of participants — or coins — is reached, the carousel sequence begins across the 360° ring screen. Each additional input can extend or influence the ride, turning collective participation into the very force that keeps the carousel turning.
旋转木马运行在一套"参与式启动"系统之上,让观众成为体验的引擎。观众扫描 360° 环形屏上的二维码进入移动端网页,获得数字门票,并将虚拟代币拖入投币口加入旋转。每一次投币都会计入共享的启动阈值——达到阈值后旋转木马随即启动,此后每一次投币都会延长并改变这场旋转。
Step 02 in detail — on their phones, visitors drag the token, drop it in, and a personal ticket prints in seconds.





It all begins on the surrounding ring screen — a “Scan to Join the Ride” prompt invites the crowd to pull out their phones and step into the system.
The visual world of Merry Go Round was built entirely in 3D — an ornately detailed carousel model constructed and rendered to form the core visual language of the installation. The 360° environment was developed inside Blender, layering the carousel structure with a scattered coin field, atmospheric lighting, and spatial depth to create the immersive ring-screen experience.
From the control booth to the ring screen, from rehearsal to the live crowd — a record of the installation in motion, witnessed by thousands at the 2050 Youth Festival.






