​Two types of data were utilized in the process of animation: climate change (global temperature and ice sheet) and polar reversal [reference] overtime. Here time is stretched, and space is only a derivative of visual perception in a blurred scale. Astrophysics data such as formation of earth from gas and dust and birth of neutron star is observed. 

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Coupling of scientifically valid data visualization and artistically creative world-building, Hongshan experiment focuses the equilibrium between human and non-human; culture and nature. It offers an interdisciplinary interests and concerns referencing archaeology, environmental science, meteorology and astrophysics through abstraction, translation and invention. 

Archaeologists collect shattered artifacts underneath the ground, scrutinizing any remaining traces of evidence that each combination deduces a different piece of reconstructed history. Using photogrammetry and image-based lighting, the generation of digital assets reappropriated strategy of archaeological excavation. I captured the digging ground, small caves, remaining building foundation in situ, which were linked to the massive steel ribs of the present architecture only by light and shadow. A frozen moment close to the present time was rendered out as base 3D scene of this project.

Radiocarbon (C-14) gives time tag to archaeological diggings, essentially facilitating our perception of history. Carbon footprint helps people understand the impact of personal behavior on global warming (CO2), which is only an “illusion” or “theory” to the nonbelievers. Carbon is also an essential building block of living things on Earth, from the origins of life and sentience even beyond Earth to we humans today. In many scientific research, carbon serves as signature of human in communication with the rather promising extraterrestrial intelligence. 

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One of the two main shaders in the creation of the animated imagery adopted the rich affinity and texture of carbon-made matters such as diamond and graphite. The other shader was programmed to reference thermal transmission: freezing and melting of ice. The ambiguous visual logic is across many interpretations from the audience. Is the spherical projected hemisphere an imagined planet? Or if it is a micro scale creature in sub-atomic scale? Is the animation suggesting fast-forward Earth’s ecological history in deep time mining? Or it is a disastrous aftermath of global warming led to the extinction of mankind? These are several visceral questions the artwork aims to raise.