[descendant|祠堂香火]

The work “Descendant” is an immersive VR art experience expressing the observation and reflection on the cultural memories behind cultural heritage Cantonese embroidery. The work presents a whimsical and surreal imagination of the future potential of Cantonese embroidery that influencing Southeast Asia, as well as its breakthrough of the technical shackles in the digital age.

The work interprets the concept of “cultural memory” behind Cantonese intangible cultural heritage from the two dimensions: ritual and space.

“Ritual” is the starting point of the work’s narrative. We carefully selected the carp dance, dragon dance, lion dance, and other types of folk performance in “Lao Re”, a celebrating ceremony in the Southern areas of China, and endowed them with dynamic life through digital animated transformation. From the perspective of Cantonese embroidery, it presents the original cultural context its functionality as a widely used tool for rituals in traditional ceremonies and behaviors.

The second half of the work unfolds around the concept of “space”. Inspired by the ancestral temple buildings in the China’s Southern area, a bright and gorgeously mirrored virtual space is constructed. The ancestral hall is the destination of the folk rituals, and it is also one of the material embodiments of the concept of “family” in the East traditional culture. The work extracts the core structure from the complex architectural appearance of the ancestral hall, and gives it a crystal-clear mirrored texture, making it an epitome and common memory of the thousands of families in the Southern areas of China, and outlines a pursuit to everlasting existence of “inheritance”.

In this mirrored space, we transform the embroidery into a colorful and mysterious living creature generated with digital codes, implying the awakening of traditional crafts in the digital age, its breakthrough of the old restrictions, as well as the new vitality and infinite possibilities bred in the technological progress.

Special thanks to Tsinghua University Education Foundation