Burning Away the Past / 2024
Multi-sensory Installation for Invisible History
with Taste, Smell, Touch, Heat, Visual, and Sound.
with Ryan Chen
Eat your bitter melons, and our bitter past would be awaken.
"Have a seat.
Eat the fruit to remember,
Press the button to burn it away.
Soon we forget again...?"
The history of East Asia is often censored or rewritten
—its pain fading with each generation, like tears turning to steam. Yet the echoes remain, buried in ash.
This multisensory installation invites audiences to feel this lingering memory through light, heat, and sound
—transforming history’s absence into a tangible presence.
My Role: Physical construction design, fabrication, 3D modeling & animation, Pepper’s Ghost effect development, and collaborative TouchDesigner development.
Physical Configuration:
Constructed wooden frames supporting three projection sheets. Installed boxes containing heaters, a candle evoking burnt scent, and bitter melon as sensory elements.
Digital Configuration:
A joystick trigger activates synchronized projections on three surrounding walls and one overhead surface. A Pepper’s Ghost hologram in front of the viewer reveals the narrative sequence.
Storyline:
We don't have any narration. We aimed storytelling only with 5 immersive senses.
